Frankfort and Elberta

Frankfort is Benzie County’s lakeside hub — a small city on Lake Michigan with a harbor, a long sandy public beach, a walkable downtown of shops and restaurants, the restored 1923 Garden Theater, and streets of handsome old homes. At the end of Main Street, you can walk the pier out to the Frankfort North Breakwater Lighthouse, which has stood at the end of the breakwater since 1932. Frankfort was one of Benzie’s early county seats, before the honor settled in Beulah.

Across the channel, on the south side of Betsie Lake, sits the village of Elberta — and the two towns share a deep harbor and a railroad past. For most of a century, Elberta was the western end of the Ann Arbor Railroad, where giant car ferries loaded entire trains and steamed across Lake Michigan to Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula. The ferries ran from 1892 until the early 1980s; today their old corridor is the Betsie Valley Trail, paved from the waterfront up to Beulah and continuing on toward Thompsonville. Just up the shore north of town, the famous Point Betsie Lighthouse stands guard (see its own note).

For buyers, this is the county’s most in-town, walk-everywhere market: Frankfort offers harbor and lake views, beach access, and a lively summer scene, while Elberta is quieter and a bit more affordable just across the water. Lake Michigan and Betsie Lake frontage carry a premium, and many properties here are on municipal sewer rather than septic.