Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 40% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Mackinac Trail-Carp River Bridge. Most of St. Ignace Township was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1991. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1931 on, and the census since 1880.
More historic than 40% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, St. Ignace Township is more historic than 40% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
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 St. Ignace Township’s 9.1 sits above most of its state (82% of Michigan towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Peaked at 3,334 in 1960; 2,306 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on St. Ignace Township’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of St. Ignace Township.
St. Ignace is the second-oldest city founded by Europeans in Michigan. Various cultures of Native Americans had inhabited the area for thousands of years before the first exploration here by French colonists. Early historic peoples of the area in the 17th century were predominantly the Iroquoian-speaking Wendat, whom the French called the Huron.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archive1717 Map of St Ignace
In the archiveOld Church, St. Ignace, Mich
In the archiveBelle Isle Inn, St. Ignace, Michigan (89236) (cropped)
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey3 decades in the archive, from the 1710s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of St. Ignace Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of St. Ignace Township.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on St. Ignace Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Another post office, Charles, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
St. Ignace Township is more historic than 40% 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.
One place: the Mackinac Trail-Carp River Bridge (listed 1999).
3% of St. Ignace Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.9 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1991.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (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.
1898
c. 1930
