Houghton Lake Gas War Sends Prices Below 50 Cents a Gallon [PHOTO]

Yes. This story is from 2016. Gas stations in Houghton Lake, Michigan are feuding so hard that their prices went as low as they were in the early 1970s.

Most of us in this part of the state are well-versed in summer road trips to Houghton Lake, but last night's gas war was almost enough for me to make a rare-winter road trip "up north."

There are four gas stations near the corner of M-55 and US-127, and I'm pretty sure their owners hate each other. Their game of one-upsmanship started on January 16th, and gas prices fell from 98 cents a gallon... then to 78... and then reached a boiling point as they dropped to what has to be some kind of record at 47 cents a gallon at around 9pm Sunday night (1/17).

The area got so crazy that police had to step in and direct traffic as you can see in the video below. Things eventually got back to normal, and gas prices rose back up to the $1.30-$1.50 a gallon range today. I imagine the heads of the four families had some kind of gangster ass meeting and called a truce to end the madness... probably because I watched 'The Godfather' on HBO last night, but still.

Houghton Lake is so close (about two hours away) that after reading about this feud, I actually skipped a much-needed fill-up thinking that $1.58 a gallon was too high and our prices would come down too. Sadly, they did not. Either way, it's still pretty badass to have the thought that $1.58 gas prices are too high in 2016. Thanks, Obama!