Founding year: the first Ontonagon Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Ontonagon Township’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Ontonagon Township is more historic than 89% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its age lowest.
A
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Ontonagon 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 Ontonagon Township’s 18.7 sits above most of its state (86% of Michigan towns have fewer) while its 4 listings outnumber those of 68% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from A− to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±4.5 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (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 →
What stands out about Ontonagon Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Peaked at 2,432 in 1970; 1,285 people lived here in 2020.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Ontonagon Township’s Wikipedia page.
Places that used to be
Old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Old hamlets and crossroads still carry their names on the map.
Hamlets and corners on the map
FiresteelGrand RapidsGreenOntonagon
Gone or out of use
Schuster Fieldairport
3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Ontonagon Township
EvergreenHoly Family CatholicRiverside
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The story so far
Ontonagon Township, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Ontonagon Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Ontonagon ( ON-tə-NAH-gən is a village in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,285 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Ontonagon County, and is the only incorporated place within the county. The village is located within Ontonagon Township, at the mouth of the Ontonagon River on Lake Superior. Industry was centered on the Smurfit-Stone Container production facility at the river mouth until the plant closed in 2010.
Its first post office opened in 1846. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 2,579 to 2,253 (-13%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Ontonagon Township, 1846 to 1970
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 Ontonagon Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1955Ontonagon 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 Ontonagon 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 viewOntonagon, Mich.Alternate Title: Views of Lake Superior No. 79, c. 1870
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Ontonagon Township’s page.
The Ontonagon Township post office opened in 1846, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Ontonagon Township rank for history?
Ontonagon Township is more historic than 89% of U.S. towns. 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.
What is on the National Register in Ontonagon Township?
4 listings: 2 buildings and 2 structures.
How old are the homes in Ontonagon Township?
24% of Ontonagon Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.5 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1959.
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 (10), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (4), 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.
2013
2011
2009
2007
2006
2006
2006
2005
2004
