Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 92% of U.S. towns · #49 of 701 in Michigan. What drives it
1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 24 buildings. Below: maps from 1922 on.
Burns Township dates its founding to 1835 (Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history agree). Its post office opened in 1837.
More historic than 92% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Burns Township is more historic than 92% of U.S. towns, #49 of 701 in Michigan. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its age lowest.
Few Michigan towns list much on the Register (a typical Michigan town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Burns Township’s 73.1 sits above most of its state (92% of Michigan towns have fewer) while its 24 historic buildings outnumber those of 80% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
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 Burns Township’s history is told.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Burns 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 Burns Township.
From Wikipedia’s history of Burns Township.
Whitmore Knaggs established a trading post here in 1820 to exchange goods for furs with the local Ojibwe. The township was organized in 1835.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
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.
Nobody well known was born in Burns Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Another post office, Burns, 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).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1835, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Burns Township’s post office opened in 1837.
Burns Township is more historic than 92% of U.S. towns, #49 of 701 in Michigan. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
One place: the Byron Historic Commercial District (listed 1984).
25% of Burns Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.0 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1974.
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).
From the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, 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.
