Photo: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory · CC BY-SA 2.0
–Not graded
History · Grand Island Township
2 of Grand Island Township’s places are on the National Register
Most of Grand Island Township was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1976. Below: 8 old photos and papers, maps from 1958 on, and the census since 1960.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Grand Island Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Grand Island Township is a civil township of Alger County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Located along the shores of Lake Superior, the township includes Grand Island, which is designated as the Grand Island National Recreation Area. The township also includes a small portion of the nearby mainland where most of its residents reside along M-28 just north of the city of Munising. At the 2020 census, the township population was 35, which ranked Grand Island Township as the second-least populated municipality in the state after Pointe Aux Barques Township.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 47 to 35 (-26%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Grand Island Township, 1867 to 2010
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Grand Island Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1958Wood Island sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Grand Island Township.
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.
Retake this viewHotel Williams, Williams Log House, Murray Bay, Munising, Alger County, MI
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Grand Island Township’s page.
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 Library of Congress (8), the National Register of Historic Places (2), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) 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.
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