{"id":4763,"date":"2023-06-28T18:43:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-28T18:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/?p=4763"},"modified":"2026-08-11T21:32:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T21:32:51","slug":"luce-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/luce-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Luce County, Michigan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Luce County is a county in Michigan, United States, in the eastern Upper Peninsula about 60 miles<br \/>\nsoutheast of Marquette. It had a population of 5,339 at the 2020 census, an estimated 6,339 by<br \/>\n2025, and covers 899 square miles (2,330 km2) of land centred near 46\u00b017\u2032N 85\u00b020\u2032W.<\/p>\n<p>Newberry is the county seat and Luce County&#8217;s only incorporated community; its postal code is 49868.<br \/>\nThe county holds 1 village, 4 civil townships and 20 unincorporated communities, and it<br \/>\nruns on Eastern Time. Its FIPS code is 26095.<\/p>\n<h2>Towns &amp; Villages in Luce County<\/h2>\n<p>Luce County has 21 named places on record: 1 incorporated village and 20 unincorporated<br \/>\ncommunities with no local government of their own. Unincorp. covers crossroads, landings and<br \/>\nformer rail stops 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>Newberry<\/td>\n<td>Village &middot; seat<\/td>\n<td>McMillan<\/td>\n<td>1,446<\/td>\n<td>49868<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Dollarville<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>McMillan<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>49868<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>McMillan<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>Columbus<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>49853<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Soo Junction<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>McMillan<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Danaher<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>Columbus<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Laketon<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>Columbus<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Helmer<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>Lakefield<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Carpenter Landing<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>Lakefield<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Deer Park<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>McMillan<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Betty B Landing<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>McMillan<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Eightmile Corner<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>McMillan<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Fourmile Corner<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>McMillan<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Lencel<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>McMillan<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>McPhees Landing<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>McMillan<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Natalie<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>McMillan<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Pine Stump Junction<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>McMillan<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Marks<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>McLeods Corner<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>McMillan Corner<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Roberts Corner<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Great Northern Trailer Court<\/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 names on this list are easy to mix up. The unincorporated community of McMillan sits in<br \/>\nColumbus Township, not in the much larger McMillan Township next door &mdash; the township took<br \/>\nits name from the same rail-era settlement but the community itself was platted a few miles away.<br \/>\nMcMillan Township, in turn, is the one that contains Newberry, the county seat, despite being<br \/>\nnamed for the smaller place.<\/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>McMillan<\/td>\n<td>2,471<\/td>\n<td>Newberry, Dollarville, Soo Junction<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Pentland<\/td>\n<td>1,564<\/td>\n<td>Scattered lakeshore camps and rural crossroads<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Lakefield<\/td>\n<td>1,135<\/td>\n<td>Helmer, Carpenter Landing<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Columbus<\/td>\n<td>169<\/td>\n<td>Danaher, Laketon, McMillan<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>McMillan Township alone covers 588.78 square miles, close to two-thirds of the county&#8217;s land<br \/>\narea, making it the largest township by land area of any municipality in Michigan.<\/p>\n<h2>ZIP Codes<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>49868 &mdash; Newberry (covers Dollarville and most of the county&#8217;s rural addresses)<\/li>\n<li>49853 &mdash; McMillan<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Every other place on the list &mdash; Soo Junction, Danaher, Laketon, Helmer, Carpenter Landing,<br \/>\nDeer Park and the rest &mdash; has no ZIP code of its own; mail there is delivered under one of<br \/>\nthese two codes, since Luce County has never supported more than two post offices at once.<\/p>\n<h2>Geography<\/h2>\n<p>Luce County sits in the eastern Upper Peninsula between Lake Superior and the Manistique River<br \/>\nwatershed, a landscape of jack-pine plains, cedar swamp and glacial outwash. Of its 1,912 square<br \/>\nmiles, only 899 are land &mdash; the other 1,013, 53 percent of the total, are water, by far the<br \/>\nhighest water share of any Michigan county. Most of that is Lake Superior itself, which forms the<br \/>\ncounty&#8217;s entire northern border; the rest comes from North and South Manistique Lakes in the<br \/>\nsoutheast corner and the Tahquamenon River, which crosses McMillan Township on its way to the<br \/>\nfalls in neighboring Chippewa County.<\/p>\n<p>Chippewa County lies to the east, Mackinac County to the south, Schoolcraft County to the<br \/>\nsouthwest, and Alger County to the west; across Lake Superior to the north lie Ontario&#8217;s Algoma<br \/>\nand Thunder Bay districts in Canada. <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/chippewa-county\/\">Chippewa<br \/>\nCounty<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/mackinac-county\/\">Mackinac County<\/a>, <a\nhref=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/schoolcraft-county\/\">Schoolcraft County<\/a> and <a\nhref=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/alger-county\/\">Alger County<\/a> all border Luce directly.<\/p>\n<h2>Demographics<\/h2>\n<p>Luce County had a population of 5,339 at the 2020 census, down from 6,631 in 2010, and the<br \/>\nlatest Census Bureau estimate puts the county back up near 6,339 residents by 2025. Much of that<br \/>\n2010-to-2020 drop traces to a change in how Michigan counts state prisoners: the 2020 census<br \/>\ncounted people at their home address rather than at the facility where they&#8217;re incarcerated,<br \/>\nwhich shrank the on-paper population of any county running a large prison, Luce included. Newberry<br \/>\nis by far the largest community, holding roughly a quarter of the county&#8217;s residents. Median<br \/>\nhousehold income runs about $54,893, well below Michigan&#8217;s statewide figure of $69,183 (2023<br \/>\nACS). Population density works out to under 6 people per square mile of land, among the lowest<br \/>\nin the state; Luce ranks as Michigan&#8217;s second-least-populous county, behind only Keweenaw.<\/p>\n<h2>Economy &amp; Local Life<\/h2>\n<p>Health care and social assistance is the county&#8217;s largest employment sector, with about 340<br \/>\nworkers, followed by public administration at 244 and manufacturing at 229. The Newberry<br \/>\nCorrectional Facility, a state prison on the edge of the village, is one of the county&#8217;s largest<br \/>\nsingle employers and a major reason public-administration jobs loom so large in a county this<br \/>\nsmall. Luce County Airport, a few miles southeast of Newberry, serves general aviation. Tourism<br \/>\nbuilt around Tahquamenon Falls State Park, whose western section reaches into McMillan Township,<br \/>\ndraws hundreds of thousands of visitors a year to the area and supports the county&#8217;s lodging and<br \/>\noutfitting businesses. Newberry has carried the official title Michigan&#8217;s Moose Capital since the<br \/>\nstate legislature designated it in 2002, reflecting the herd reintroduced to the eastern Upper<br \/>\nPeninsula in the late 1980s. The Newberry News, a weekly paper, has covered the county since<br \/>\n1886.<\/p>\n<h2>History<\/h2>\n<p>The Michigan Legislature organised Luce County out of Chippewa County in 1887, naming it for<br \/>\nCyrus G. Luce, who was governor at the time. Newberry, already platted in 1882 around a sawmill<br \/>\nand named for U.S. Representative and industrialist John Stoughton Newberry, became the new<br \/>\ncounty&#8217;s seat. Much of the county&#8217;s early economy ran on the same pattern as its neighbors: rail<br \/>\nlines built to move white-pine lumber out of the interior, with settlements like Dollarville<br \/>\n&mdash; named for lumber-company manager Robert Dollar, who later made his fortune in Pacific<br \/>\nshipping &mdash; growing up around mills and depots that mostly disappeared once the pine was<br \/>\ncut.<\/p>\n<h2>Getting There<\/h2>\n<p>M-28, Michigan&#8217;s longest state trunkline highway, runs east-west a few miles south of Newberry<br \/>\nand is the county&#8217;s main through route; M-123 runs north-south through the village itself, and<br \/>\nM-117 serves the western part of the county. No interstate highway crosses Luce County.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sault Ste. Marie &mdash; about 60 miles east<\/li>\n<li>St. Ignace &mdash; about 55 miles southeast<\/li>\n<li>Marquette &mdash; about 90 miles west<\/li>\n<li>Munising &mdash; about 60 miles west<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Chippewa County International Airport, near Sault Ste. Marie, is the nearest airport with<br \/>\nscheduled commercial service. Luce County Airport, southeast of Newberry, handles general<br \/>\naviation only. Indian Trails intercity buses connect Newberry to St. Ignace and points west along<br \/>\nM-28; there is no passenger rail service in the county.<\/p>\n<h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Where is Luce County located?<\/strong><br \/>\nIt sits in Michigan&#8217;s eastern Upper Peninsula on Lake Superior, about 60 miles southeast of<br \/>\nMarquette, bordered by Chippewa, Mackinac, Schoolcraft and Alger counties.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is the population of Luce County?<\/strong><br \/>\n5,339 at the 2020 census, with a 2025 estimate near 6,339.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How big is Luce County?<\/strong><br \/>\n1,912 square miles in total, but only 899 square miles are land &mdash; 53 percent of the county<br \/>\nis water, mostly Lake Superior.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is the county seat of Luce County?<\/strong><br \/>\nNewberry is the county seat and Luce County&#8217;s only incorporated community.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How many towns and villages are in Luce County?<\/strong><br \/>\nOne incorporated village, Newberry, plus 20 unincorporated communities including Dollarville,<br \/>\nMcMillan, Soo Junction and Helmer, spread across four civil townships.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What ZIP codes does Luce County use?<\/strong><br \/>\n49868 for Newberry and most of the county, and 49853 for McMillan.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is Luce County known for?<\/strong><br \/>\nTahquamenon Falls State Park, whose western section lies in McMillan Township, and Newberry&#8217;s<br \/>\nofficial status as Michigan&#8217;s Moose Capital.<\/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>Luce County is a county in Michigan, United States, in the eastern Upper Peninsula about 60 miles southeast of Marquette. It had a population of 5,339 at the 2020 census, an estimated 6,339 by 2025, and covers 899 square miles (2,330 km2) of land centred near 46\u00b017\u2032N 85\u00b020\u2032W. Newberry is the county seat and Luce [&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 Luce County, Michigan","_seopress_titles_desc":"All 21 places in Luce County, Michigan - type, township, population and ZIP for each, plus Newberry, Tahquamenon Falls and the county's 4 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-4763","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\/4763","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=4763"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9693,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4763\/revisions\/9693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}