Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Grant Township

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Grant Township

12% of Grant Township’s homes were built before 1940

6 places in town are on the National Register, among them three historic districts with 45 buildings between them. Below: maps from 1948 on.

6on the National Register
12%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory

What stands out about Grant Township’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Grant Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Grant Township, and 7 old place names are still on the map.A historic districtThe Keweenaw Mountain Lodge and Golf Course Complex takes in 24 historic buildings.Landmarks on the Register6 places on the National Register.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Grant Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Grant Township’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Copper Harbor
1861–1890
Mandan
1908–1931
Copper Harbor
1938–today
18601940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Bete GriseBetsyCopper HarborDelawareLac La BelleMandanWyoming
Gone or out of use
Fort Wilkins Historical MarkerparkMandan Post Officepost officeMandan Stationlocale
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Grant Township
Copper HarborFort Wilkins State Park

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

On the National Register

6 listings protect 47 historic buildings

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed
6
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
47
each building in a district counts
first listed
1970
Fort Wilkins
Fort Wilkins, built 1923Keweenaw Mountain Lodge and Golf Course ComplexGull Rock Light Station, built 1867Manitou Island Light Station, built 1850US 41-Fanny Hooe Creek Bridge, built 1928Copper Harbor Light Station, built 1848
BuildingsDistrictsStructures

Architectural styles listings

Rustic Camp Architecture1
Concrete Filled Spandrel Arch Bridge1
Side-gable House1
Schoolhouse Type Lighthouse/Keeper's Dwelling1
Steel Skeleton Tower1
Fort WilkinsBuilt 1923
Keweenaw Mountain Lodge and Golf Course ComplexRustic Camp Architecture
Gull Rock Light StationBuilt 1867
Manitou Island Light StationBuilt 1850
US 41-Fanny Hooe Creek BridgeConcrete Filled Spandrel Arch Bridge · Built 1928
Copper Harbor Light StationSide-gable House · Built 1848

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

The story

How Grant Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Grant Township.

Read it all →

Grant Township was one of the original townships of Keweenaw County, which was organized in 1861. At the time, Grant Township occupied a much smaller centralized area of the county. The township soon expanded and absorbed the townships of Sibley and Copper Harbor, which are now defunct but can be seen on an 1873 map of Keweenaw County.

The Keweenaw Rocket Range, located within the township at the easternmost tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula, was used by NASA as a rocket launch site from 1964 until 1971.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Grant Township, 1850 to 1948

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1850BuiltManitou Island Light Station is built
  3. 1861Post officeThe Copper Harbor post office opens
  4. 1867BuiltGull Rock Light Station is built
  5. 1890Post officeThe Copper Harbor post office closes
  6. 20th century
  7. 1908Post officeThe Mandan post office opens
  8. 1923BuiltFort Wilkins is built
  9. 1928BuiltUS 41-Fanny Hooe Creek Bridge is built
  10. 1931Post officeThe Mandan post office closes
  11. 1938Post officeThe Copper Harbor post office opens
  12. 1948On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your album
On the map

Grant Township on the map, 1948 to 1975

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Grant Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Grant Township on the 1948 USGS mapGrant Township on the 1975 USGS map1948Fort Wilkins sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Grant Township.

Famous people

Famous people close to Grant Township

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

See all →
Manson BenedictAmerican nuclear engineer · b. 1907
Philip RuppeAmerican politician · b. 1926
M
Mary Locke PetermannAmerican cellular biochemist · b. 1908
P
Percy RossAmerican philanthropist · b. 1916
D
Donald R. AldridgeAmerican politician · b. 1937
L
Lyman FrimodigAmerican athlete and college basketball coach · b. 1891
Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Eagle Harbor Township11 historic placesnot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townSherman TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townCopper Harbor2 historic placesnot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Grant Township’s history

What is on the National Register in Grant Township?

6 listings: 1 building, 3 historic districts, the Fort Wilkins, the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge and Golf Course Complex and the Copper Harbor Light Station, with 45 contributing buildings, and 2 structures. 47 historic buildings in all.

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 Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (6), 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.