Three Oaks, MI

At the 2020 census, Three Oaks was a Berrien County village of 1,370 people near the Indiana line and about five miles from Lake Michigan. The village began as Chamberlain’s Siding, settled by Henry Chamberlain in 1850, and became Three Oaks after the trees that once guided railroad engineers. The last of those original oaks disappeared early in the twentieth century, but the name stayed put. Railroads arrived in the 1870s, and the village incorporated in 1873.

Three Oaks has a surprising amount of stagecraft for a place this size. The Warren Featherbone Factory once made corset stiffeners from turkey feathers; today the building holds the Acorn Theater and Journeyman Distillery. The Acorn runs an eclectic performance calendar in a former factory, while the Flag Day celebration and parade fill June with a very particular hometown ritual. The village was also the filming location for the 1989 Christmas movie Prancer. Add Dewey Cannon Park, the old water tower, and the Apple Cider Century bike ride, and Three Oaks feels less like a stop between bigger places than a small village that has learned how to keep its old props in active use.