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History · Chums Corner

15% of Chums Corner’s homes were built before 1940

Below: 1 old photo or paper.

0on the National Register
15%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Chums Corner’s archive · credits on each photo

What stands out about Chums Corner’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Chums Corner’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Chums Corner’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewChums Corner, MI location: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Chums Corner came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Chums Corner.

Read it all →

Historically, the area that is now Chums Corner was traversed by what is now known as the Old Indian Trail, a trail which serviced travel for the Anishinaabe between Lake Mitchell, near Cadillac, and Grand Traverse Bay, in Traverse City.

Around 1932, Deronda "Chum" Crandall and his wife Eva began operating a gas station and a grocery store at a major highway intersection a few miles south of Traverse City. Over the years the intersection became known as "Chum's Corners". Chum sold the business and retired in 1953, and died in Traverse City in early 1959.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Chums Corner, decade by decade

Date unknown1 to date
Chums Corner, MI locationDate?Chums Corner, MI location
Today1 recent
Silver Lake Rebuilding2019Silver Lake Rebuilding
Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Chums Corner, MI location
Retake this viewChums Corner, MI location

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Chums Corner’s page.

Retake this view · +15
Famous people

Famous people close to Chums Corner

Nobody well known was born in Chums Corner itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Jeremy DaviesAmerican actor · b. 1969
B
Barry WatsonAmerican actor · b. 1974
Dan MajerleAmerican basketball player · b. 1965
David WayneAmerican actor · b. 1914
C
Craig ThompsonAmerican graphic novelist · b. 1975
William MillikenAmerican politician · b. 1922
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Garfield TownshipIts storyC−Blair TownshipIts storyD

Questions about Chums Corner’s history

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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 Wikimedia Commons (2) and Wikipedia. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.