Pull over at Good Hart, because you've reached the coziest spot on the whole road and it has one of the best name stories in Michigan. The Good Hart General Store — creaky porch, screen door, gravel lot, deep in the trees — has been the heart of this tiny village since the nineteen thirties. And I mean heart in a very specific way, because that's the joke that's been baked into this town's name for a hundred years.
The Odawa name for this area referred to the crooked tree, like the rest of the coast. But the modern name comes from a different Odawa word — Kaw-me-no-te-a — which translates to "good heart." Good heart. That was going to be the name of the town. Except when they set up the post office, whoever was filling out the federal paperwork misspelled it. Dropped the E. Wrote it as Good H-A-R-T. Good Hart. And once the United States Post Office has printed something, that's the name, forever, spelling error and all. So this entire village is named after a typo. The good heart beca
me Good Hart, and it stuck, and nobody ever fixed it, and honestly at this point why would you.
The store itself is the real reason to stop. It's been run by the same family, the Sutherlands, since the early seventies — Carolyn Sutherland has been behind that counter for over fifty years. And the thing they're famous for, the thing people drive this entire road to buy, is the pot pies. Chicken an
