Buchanan goes gaga over garage sale

Published 12:13 pm Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Buchanan residents love a good garage sale.

So when Michigan’s Longest Garage Sale comes rolling through southwest Michigan, you can expect Buchanan to join in at a record clip.

With a couple days to go, Buchanan already has between 70 and 75 garage sales sites registered for this weekend’s super sale, which takes place Friday, Saturday and Sunday in many homes, organizations and businesses across Michigan’s U.S. Highway 12.

Buchanan had around 100 garage sale sites last year.

“I was told we had the largest participation of any community along U.S. 12,” said Ben Sadler, director of the city’s Chamber of Commerce. “I think they are trying to pull some people off of U.S. 12 and into town that normally wouldn’t have come here.”

U.S. 12, the nation’s second-oldest highway, stretches along an old Native American trail from Detroit to New Buffalo. Since the sale started in 2003, it has taken place during the second weekend of every August.

A map of participating garage sale sites can be found on the U.S. 12 Heritage Trail website, us12heritagetrail.org.

Sadler said he would be handing out maps featuring Buchanan garage sales in the parking lot on the corner of Red Bud Trail and Front Street, in downtown Buchanan, this weekend.

“We get a lot of people from Indiana and all over,” Sadler said. “I passed out about 300 maps on Friday last year.”

Garage sale sites can also be found in Niles and Edwardsburg, although in smaller numbers.