On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Menominee Township is more historic than 32% of U.S. towns, #553 of 701 in Michigan. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Menominee Township’s overall grade.
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 Menominee Township’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (32% of Michigan towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on two of the three inputs, so a change in either one moves the letter more than it would with three. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±4.8 points).
Founding year: our sources. 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 →
What stands out about Menominee Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
In historic times, this area was the traditional territory of the Menominee Indian Tribe. The town of Menominee was named after their English name which roughly translates as "wild rice," a nickname given to them by their Ojibwe neighbors based on their cultivation of wild rice as a staple food. In their own language, they are known as Mamaceqtaw which means simply "the people", and the town of Menominee is known as Menekaunee (sometimes spelled Menīkāneh), which means "at the good village". They were removed to west of the Mississippi River and now have a reservation along the Wolf River in North Central Wisconsin after ceding their territory to the United States in the 1836 Treaty of the Cedars.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Menominee Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1963Chappee Rapids 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 Menominee 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 viewLogging on the river, 1880
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Menominee Township’s page.
Menominee Township is more historic than 32% of U.S. towns, #553 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.
How old are the homes in Menominee Township?
11% of Menominee Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.8 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1976.
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 Wikimedia Commons (5), the Library of Congress (5), Wikidata (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.
1880
1898
1980
1980
1980
2005
