Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listings are the Chicagon Mine Road-Chicagon Creek Bridge and the US 2-Iron River Bridge. Below: maps from 1898 on.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Bates Township’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Bates Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Bates Township.
Another post office, Mapleton, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Bates Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Bates Township is a civil township of Iron County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the township population was 1,021, though in 2020 its population was 925.
Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 921 in 2010, 925 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Nobody well known was born in Bates Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Two places: the Chicagon Mine Road-Chicagon Creek Bridge (listed 1999) and the US 2-Iron River Bridge (1999).
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From the National Register of Historic Places (2), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
