Shepherd Michigan is known as the "Sweetest Town Around" and there is a reason. What does one first think of when Shepherd is mentioned - The Maple Syrup Festival held every year in late April. With community volunteers, the festival has generated enough money to hold a summer youth program, build a community swimming pool and maintain a park. When you drive through the village it is under a canopy of magnificent sugar maples. One of the prime spring time occupations is gathering the sap from all the sugar maples in town. The streets are cool and relaxing in the summer shade and the fall color is spectacular. The railroad runs through town and when the festival is in progress passenger trains run between Shepherd and Mt. Pleasant.
Located in the southeast corner of Isabella County next to the Little Salt River, it is just a ten minute drive to Mt. Pleasant and many of the approximately 1500 residents do this each day. Shepherd is surrounded by some of the best agricultural lands in central Michigan and a number of big farming operations (up to 5,000 acres) are just outside of town.
The village has just completed a downtown renovation project that has really spruced up the community and the residents are now deciding what the next major project shall be.
The top pictures from the left illustrate the community celebration with the playground in the background, the township hall with the new street project and the caboose from the train museum all on the west side.
The lower pictures show the main street in the left two pictures and the Little Salt River Park on the east side of town.
