Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 72% of U.S. towns · #179 of 701 in Michigan. What drives it
Most of Yankee Springs Township was built recently: 7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1993. Below: 2 old photos and papers and maps from 1951 on.
More historic than 72% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Yankee Springs Township is more historic than 72% of U.S. towns, #179 of 701 in Michigan. 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 Yankee Springs Township’s 83.2 sits above most of its state (93% of Michigan towns have fewer) while its 45 historic buildings outnumber those of 84% 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Yankee Springs Township’s history is told.
Three other post offices 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).
The 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.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Yankee Springs Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Yankee Springs Township is a civil township of Barry County, Michigan, United States. The population was 5,322 at the 2020 census.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 4,065 to 5,322 (+31%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveLong Lake Camp 1940s
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Yankee Springs 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 Yankee Springs 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 Yankee Springs Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Yankee Springs Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Yankee Springs Township is more historic than 72% of U.S. towns, #179 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.
Two places: the Chief Noonday Group Camp Historic District (listed 1996) and the Long Lake Group Camp Historic District (1996).
7% of Yankee Springs Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.3 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1993.
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 (2), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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.
1940