County Past
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Mason County, Michigan

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

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
11historic places
—earliest paper
1840formed
29,052pop. 2020
32cemeteries
—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 11 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1973; 1 is also National Historic Landmark. Most listings are in or near Ludington, Mason, Hamlin 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 Mason titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

6 of 11 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

11 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Big Sable Point Light StationMasonBuilding1983
Cartier, William A. and Catherine, HouseLudingtonBuilding2014
East Ludington Avenue Historic DistrictLudingtonDistrict2022
Haskell Manufacturing Company BuildingLudingtonBuilding2020
Lake Michigan Beach House, Ludington State ParkHamlin LakeBuilding2013
Ludington North Breakwater LightLudingtonStructure2005
Ludington United States Coast Guard StationLudingtonBuilding2010
Mason County CourthouseLudingtonBuilding1988
Not-A-Pe-Ka-Gon SiteMason CountySite1973
S.S. BADGER (carferry) NHLLudingtonStructure2009
Scottville SchoolScottvilleBuilding2001

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

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Mason was formed in 1840 (1840-04-01) from Michilimackinac.

NOTIPEKAGO (now MASON) created from MICHILIMACKINAC (now MACKINAC).

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Mason County population from 1850 to 2020 (Census historical series).

29k15k931850188019201940196020002020
18501860188019001920194019501960198020002020
9383110,06518,88519,83119,37820,47421,92926,36528,27429,052

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

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

32 cemeteries and 2 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 32 of 32 listed
NameLatLon
Bachellor Cemetery44.00515-86.13114
Brookside Cemetery43.95417-86.30591
Center Riverton Cemetery43.87677-86.33261
Eden Twonship Indian Cemetery43.82417-86.24924
Emmanuel Lutheran Cemetery43.99053-86.15985
Fountain Cemetery44.04793-86.19991
Grant Township Cemetery44.1091-86.29082
Hamlin Village Cemetery44.03451-86.49443
Lakeside Cemetery43.87601-86.23901
Lakeview Cemetery43.97139-86.45592
Long Lake Cemetery44.15663-86.30034
Maple Grove Cemetery44.10867-86.25204
McCumber Cemetery43.84528-86.06812
Meade Cemetery44.11222-86.14674
North Amber Cemetery43.96307-86.32993
North Victory Cemetery44.08017-86.35606
Pere Marquette Cemetery43.94076-86.42647
Phillips Cemetery43.90601-86.44403
Rickey Cemetery43.93326-86.33501
Riverside Cemetery43.94185-86.22271
Riverton Cemetery43.87666-86.33368
Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery44.05055-86.37583
Sacred Heart Cemetery44.02999-86.42222
Saint John Cantius Cemetery44.1052-86.20873
Saint Joseph's Catholic Cemetery (historical)44.01972-86.09972
Saint Peter's Cemetery43.85444-86.33833
South Victory Cemetery43.99861-86.3537
South Victory Cemetery43.99944-86.35396
Sugar Grove Cemetery44.00586-86.27131
Summit Cemetery43.87681-86.39405
Tallman Cemetery43.98238-86.11036
West Riverton Cemetery43.90521-86.37351
Historical populated places — 2 of 2
NameLatLon
Lincoln43.99167-86.4675
Riverton43.905-86.33889

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 Mason County, Michigan

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