County Past
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Grand Traverse County, Michigan

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
13historic places
—earliest paper
1851formed
95,238pop. 2020
37cemeteries
—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 13 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1972. Most listings are in or near Traverse City, Peninsula, Fife Lake.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for Michigan is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Grand Traverse titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

6 of 13 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

13 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
American Legion Memorial BridgeTraverse CityStructure2000
Boardman Neighborhood Historic DistrictTraverse CityDistrict1978
Central Neighborhood Historic DistrictTraverse CityDistrict1979
City Opera HouseTraverse CityBuilding1972
Dougherty Mission HousePeninsulaBuilding2011
Fife Lake-Union District No. 1 SchoolhouseFife LakeBuilding1987
Hannah, Perry, HouseTraverse CityBuilding1972
Hedden HallTraverse CityBuilding1982
Northern Michigan AsylumTraverse CityDistrict1978
Pulcipher, John, HouseAcme TownshipBuilding2000
Skegemog Point SiteWilliamsburgSite1972
South Union Street-Boardman River BridgeTraverse CityStructure2000
Stickney Summer House-Bowers Harbor InnPeninsulaBuilding2011

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Grand Traverse was formed in 1851 (1851-04-07) from Omeena.

GRAND TRAVERSE created from OMEENA (extinct).

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Grand Traverse County population from 1860 to 2020 (Census historical series).

95k48k1,2861860188019201940196020002020
1860188019001920194019501960198020002020
1,2868,42220,47919,51823,39028,59833,49054,89977,65495,238

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

National Park Service sites nearby

NPS

Park units within about 40 km of the county centroid (from NPS Public POIs; no API key).

SiteTypeDist.
SLBEPark unit41.9 km

Source: NPS National Datasets / Public POIs. The NPS Developer API requires a free key and was not used.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

37 cemeteries and 0 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 37 of 37 listed
NameLatLon
Acme Township Cemetery44.78028-85.49337
Barnum Cemetery44.62083-85.52506
Blackman Cemetery44.54805-85.54694
Bowers Harbor Cemetery44.9011-85.54813
Circle Hill Cemetery44.76194-85.39645
De Lorme Cemetery44.58137-85.78142
Dell Cemetery44.54082-85.49583
Downs Cemetery44.57083-85.69562
Evergreen Cemetery44.58361-85.50728
Fife Lake Cemetery44.57777-85.35499
Fowler Cemetery44.54832-85.54722
Grand Traverse Memorial Gardens Cemetery44.73968-85.63522
Grant Methodist Cemetery44.52777-85.75638
Grant Township Cemetery44.52777-85.75749
Iilif Grave44.58416-85.46805
Jenny Grave44.52638-85.50666
Koch Cemetery44.62832-85.52555
Lakeside Cemetery44.96332-85.47916
Linwood Cemetery44.75059-85.76505
Maple Grove Cemetery44.65083-85.6959
Milks Cemetery44.55527-85.46666
Monroe Center Cemetery44.60888-85.69618
Mount Hope Cemetery44.65832-85.8141
Northrup Grave44.62666-85.45027
Oakwood Catholic Diocesan Cemetery44.75444-85.58479
Oakwood Cemetery44.75305-85.58451
Ogdensburg Cemetery44.92805-85.50341
Old Walton Cemetery44.52129-85.40012
Saint Aloysius Cemetery44.57777-85.34444
Saint Josephs Cemetery44.87211-85.51554
Saint Mary's Cemetery44.58638-85.63472
Seegmiller Cemetery44.56305-85.51527
Sparling Cemetery44.57366-85.47497
Swainston Cemetery44.52638-85.50833
Walton Cemetery44.51916-85.39111
Williamsburg Cemetery44.77257-85.40584
Yuba Acme Township Cemetery44.82593-85.45545

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Grand Traverse County, Michigan

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.