{"id":4748,"date":"2023-06-28T18:23:15","date_gmt":"2023-06-28T18:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/?p=4748"},"modified":"2026-08-07T18:59:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T18:59:38","slug":"lake-county-michigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/lake-county-michigan\/","title":{"rendered":"Lake County, Michigan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lake County is a county in Michigan, United States, about 70 miles north of Grand Rapids. It had<br \/>\na population of 12,096 at the 2020 census, an estimated 13,005 by 2025, and covers 567 square<br \/>\nmiles (1,470 km2) centred near 43\u00b059\u2032N 85\u00b049\u2032W.<\/p>\n<p>Baldwin is the county seat; its postal code is 49304. The county holds 2 villages and 14<br \/>\nunincorporated communities spread across 15 civil townships, and it runs on Eastern Time. Its FIPS<br \/>\ncode is 26085.<\/p>\n<h2>Towns &amp; Villages in Lake County<\/h2>\n<p>Lake County has 16 named places on record: 2 incorporated villages, Baldwin and Luther, and 14<br \/>\nunincorporated communities with no local government of their own. CDP stands for census<br \/>\ndesignated place; Unincorp. covers crossroads and rural hamlets with no formal boundary.<\/p>\n<div class=\"tv-table-scroll\">\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Place<\/th>\n<th>Type<\/th>\n<th>Township<\/th>\n<th>Pop.<\/th>\n<th>ZIP<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Baldwin<\/td>\n<td>Village &middot; seat<\/td>\n<td>Pleasant Plains<\/td>\n<td>902<\/td>\n<td>49304<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Luther<\/td>\n<td>Village<\/td>\n<td>Newkirk \/ Ellsworth<\/td>\n<td>332<\/td>\n<td>49656<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Chase<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>Chase<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>49623<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Idlewild<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>Yates<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>49642<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Irons<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>Eden<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>49644<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Peacock<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>Peacock<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Sauble<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>Sauble<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Bristol<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>Dover<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Wolf Lake<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Edgetts<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Little Manistee<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Marlborough<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Nirvana<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Olivers<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Pine Grove Beach<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Skookum<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>Two entries need a note. Bristol, in Dover Township, is a former lumber-era settlement now<br \/>\nmostly abandoned &mdash; the old J.H. Sutton general store is the only original building still<br \/>\nstanding, and locals call it a ghost town. And this Wolf Lake is Lake County&#8217;s own small<br \/>\nhamlet, not the much larger Wolf Lake census-designated place of the same name in Muskegon<br \/>\nCounty &mdash; the two are unrelated and about 60 miles apart. Township assignments for Edgetts,<br \/>\nLittle Manistee, Marlborough, Nirvana, Olivers, Pine Grove Beach and Skookum could not be traced<br \/>\nto a primary source and are omitted rather than guessed.<\/p>\n<h2>Townships<\/h2>\n<div class=\"tv-table-scroll\">\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Township<\/th>\n<th>Pop. (2020)<\/th>\n<th>Main settlements<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Webber<\/td>\n<td>2,413<\/td>\n<td>Baldwin (partly)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Pleasant Plains<\/td>\n<td>1,590<\/td>\n<td>Baldwin (most)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Chase<\/td>\n<td>1,151<\/td>\n<td>Chase<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Elk<\/td>\n<td>938<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Lake<\/td>\n<td>811<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Pinora<\/td>\n<td>754<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Yates<\/td>\n<td>743<\/td>\n<td>Idlewild<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Ellsworth<\/td>\n<td>733<\/td>\n<td>Luther (east)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Newkirk<\/td>\n<td>654<\/td>\n<td>Luther (west)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Eden<\/td>\n<td>470<\/td>\n<td>Irons<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Cherry Valley<\/td>\n<td>421<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Peacock<\/td>\n<td>398<\/td>\n<td>Peacock<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Dover<\/td>\n<td>387<\/td>\n<td>Bristol<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Sauble<\/td>\n<td>373<\/td>\n<td>Sauble<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Sweetwater<\/td>\n<td>255<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<h2>ZIP Codes<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>49304 &mdash; Baldwin (the county seat and its most populous ZIP)<\/li>\n<li>49656 &mdash; Luther<\/li>\n<li>49644 &mdash; Irons (also covers most of Eden and Elk townships)<\/li>\n<li>49623 &mdash; Chase<\/li>\n<li>49642 &mdash; Idlewild<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Peacock, Sauble, Bristol, Wolf Lake and the county&#8217;s smaller hamlets have no ZIP code of<br \/>\ntheir own; mail there is delivered under the nearest post-office town&#8217;s code.<\/p>\n<h2>Geography<\/h2>\n<p>Lake County sits in Michigan&#8217;s northwestern Lower Peninsula, a hilly, heavily forested<br \/>\nstretch of glacial moraine and outwash plain. Of its 567 square miles, about 6.9 square miles are<br \/>\nwater, roughly 1.2 percent &mdash; low for a county named for its lakes, since most of that<br \/>\nsurface area comes from dozens of small kettle lakes rather than one large body of water. The<br \/>\nManistee National Forest covers a large share of the county, and five rivers &mdash; the<br \/>\nManistee, Pere Marquette, Pine, Muskegon and Little Manistee &mdash; either cross or rise within<br \/>\nits borders. The Pere Marquette, which flows past Baldwin, is a state-designated Blue Ribbon trout<br \/>\nfishery.<\/p>\n<p>Manistee County lies to the north, Wexford County to the northeast, Osceola County to the east,<br \/>\nMecosta County to the southeast, Newaygo County to the south, Oceana County to the southwest and<br \/>\nMason County to the west. <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/manistee-county\/\">Manistee<br \/>\nCounty<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wexford-county\/\">Wexford County<\/a>, <a<br \/>\nhref=&#8221;https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/mecosta-county\/&#8221;>Mecosta County<\/a>, <a<br \/>\nhref=&#8221;https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/newaygo-county\/&#8221;>Newaygo County<\/a>, <a<br \/>\nhref=&#8221;https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/oceana-county\/&#8221;>Oceana County<\/a> and <a<br \/>\nhref=&#8221;https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/mason-county-michigan\/&#8221;>Mason County<\/a> all border Lake<br \/>\ndirectly; Osceola County has no live page on this site to link to yet.<\/p>\n<h2>Demographics<\/h2>\n<p>Lake County had a population of 12,096 at the 2020 census, and the latest estimate puts the<br \/>\ncounty near 13,005 residents by 2025. Baldwin and Luther are the only two incorporated places, but<br \/>\ntogether they hold a small share of the county&#8217;s population &mdash; most residents live in<br \/>\nthe surrounding townships rather than inside either village&#8217;s limits. Median household income<br \/>\nruns about $50,805 (2024 estimate), well below Michigan&#8217;s statewide figure of $69,183 (2023<br \/>\nACS); Lake County has been named among Michigan&#8217;s poorest counties in past state rankings.<br \/>\nPopulation density works out to roughly 21 people per square mile of land, among the lowest of any<br \/>\ncounty in the Lower Peninsula.<\/p>\n<h2>Economy &amp; Local Life<\/h2>\n<p>Manufacturing employs the most workers in the county, about 910 people, followed by retail<br \/>\ntrade at 567 and health care and social assistance at 420. Tourism drives much of the summer<br \/>\neconomy: the Manistee National Forest and the Pere Marquette River draw campers, canoeists and<br \/>\nanglers to Baldwin and the surrounding townships. The North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin,<br \/>\nbuilt in the late 1990s and expanded to 1,700 beds by 2005, reopened in June 2025 as an<br \/>\nimmigration detention center operated by the GEO Group &mdash; now described as the largest<br \/>\nfacility of its kind in the Midwest. Idlewild, once known as the &#8220;Black Eden of<br \/>\nMichigan&#8221; for its role as a resort where African Americans could vacation freely during<br \/>\nsegregation, now hosts the Idlewild Education, Empowerment and Music Festival each July, drawing<br \/>\nvisitors back to the community&#8217;s historic lakefront.<\/p>\n<h2>History<\/h2>\n<p>The Michigan Legislature created the county in 1840 as Aischum County, a name drawn from an<br \/>\nOjibwe term. It was renamed Lake County in 1843 for its many lakes, and before county government<br \/>\nwas organized in 1871 it was administered by a series of neighboring Michigan counties.<\/p>\n<p>Idlewild, founded in 1912 by white land developers, became the rare Michigan resort where Black<br \/>\nfamilies could own property and vacation openly during the era of segregation. Between the 1940s<br \/>\nand early 1960s it drew an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 summer visitors a year and hosted prominent<br \/>\nBlack entertainers of the period. Visitor numbers fell sharply after the Civil Rights Act of 1964<br \/>\nopened other resorts to Black travelers, and Idlewild&#8217;s revival efforts continue today through<br \/>\nlocal heritage organizations.<\/p>\n<h2>Getting There<\/h2>\n<p>US 10 runs east-west through Baldwin, merging with M-37 for about three miles through town<br \/>\nbefore the two highways separate again; no interstate crosses the county.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cadillac &mdash; about 30 miles northeast<\/li>\n<li>Big Rapids &mdash; about 30 miles southeast<\/li>\n<li>Muskegon &mdash; about 50 miles southwest<\/li>\n<li>Grand Rapids &mdash; about 70 miles south<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids is the nearest major commercial airport.<br \/>\nThere is no Amtrak station in the county; the closest is in Cadillac on the Cadillac connector<br \/>\nservice to the Pere Marquette line.<\/p>\n<h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Where is Lake County located?<\/strong><br \/>\nIt sits in Michigan&#8217;s northwestern Lower Peninsula, about 70 miles north of Grand Rapids,<br \/>\nbordered by Manistee, Wexford, Osceola, Mecosta, Newaygo, Oceana and Mason counties.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is the population of Lake County?<\/strong><br \/>\n12,096 at the 2020 census, with a 2025 estimate near 13,005.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How big is Lake County?<\/strong><br \/>\n567 square miles (1,470 km2), of which about 6.9 square miles are water.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is the county seat of Lake County?<\/strong><br \/>\nBaldwin is the county seat and the larger of the county&#8217;s two villages.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How many towns and villages are in Lake County?<\/strong><br \/>\nTwo incorporated villages, Baldwin and Luther, plus 14 unincorporated communities including<br \/>\nChase, Idlewild, Irons, Peacock, Sauble, Bristol and Wolf Lake.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What ZIP codes does Lake County use?<\/strong><br \/>\n49304 for Baldwin, 49656 for Luther, 49644 for Irons, 49623 for Chase and 49642 for Idlewild.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is Lake County known for?<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Manistee National Forest and Pere Marquette River fishing, and Idlewild, the historic &#8220;Black<br \/>\nEden of Michigan&#8221; resort community.<\/p>\n<p>More counties in this state: <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/category\/michigan\/\">Towns and villages in Michigan<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lake County is a county in Michigan, United States, about 70 miles north of Grand Rapids. It had a population of 12,096 at the 2020 census, an estimated 13,005 by 2025, and covers 567 square miles (1,470 km2) centred near 43\u00b059\u2032N 85\u00b049\u2032W. Baldwin is the county seat; its postal code is 49304. The county holds [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"Towns & Villages in Lake County, Michigan","_seopress_titles_desc":"16 towns and villages in Lake County, Michigan: type, township, population and ZIP for each, plus Idlewild's Black Eden history and 15 townships.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-4748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-michigan","tag-towns-and-cities","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4748"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9404,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4748\/revisions\/9404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}