Dakota Heights is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Portage Charter Township, Houghton County in the U.S. state of

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. It is an

enclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is so ...

surrounded on all four sides by the extreme western part of the city of Houghton (on the fourth by Portage Lake (or, depending on the definition of terms, the Portage Lake Shipping Canal)); it is non-contiguous with any other part of Portage Township. (However, it was formerly served by the water lines of Adams Township.) Living in Dakota Heights is at least sometimes regarded as living "in town" (Houghton).

History

Dakota Heights was

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Survey System, Public Lands Surveys to ...

ted in 1906 and named after the Dacotah Mining Company, which operated briefly in its vicinity. It provided housing for workers on the Copper Range Railroad, which had a number of facilities immediately to the north; the company owned most of the housing. It remains "primarily residential," though some businesses have opened (and closed) in it over the years, including a former motel, and currently a podiatrist's office, restaurant

spa A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water (sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths. Spa health treatments are known as balneotherapy. The belief in the curative powers of mineral waters and hot springs goes back to pre ...

, and bank.

Geography

Dakota Heights originally sat at the west end of Houghton's Shelden Avenue. West of Dakota Heights was originally

countryside In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically describ ...

, prior to the development of the M-26 corridor that began in the mid-1970s.

Climate

Dakota Heights has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

but winters are typically long and snowy with much lake effect snow.

Environmental issues

Pollution in Huron Creek, arguably from inadequate private septic systems has contributed to the growth of

algae Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular ...

Education

The local school district is Houghton-Portage Township Schools. Students K-12 are served by Houghton Elementary (K-5), Middle (6-8), and High (9-12) school
Houghton-Portage Township Schools
The Rock School formerly served Dakota Heights and the surrounding area.

Infrastructure

Transportation

In 1979 Highway M-26 was rerouted through the community, bisecting it. Park Avenue had formerly served as the main route from Houghton to Atlantic Mine, but this was replaced by the new route of the highway. Houghton Motor Transit operates a demand bus that serves the community, but "curb to curb" services is only for Houghton residents, and as it is outside the

city limit City limits or city boundaries refer to the defined boundary or border of a city. The area within the city limit can be called the city proper. Town limit/boundary and village limit/boundary apply to towns and villages. Similarly, corporate li ...

s of Houghton rates with one terminus in Dakota Heights are higher. However, there are no regularly scheduled route buses operating in the community. A snowmobile trail runs along Dakota Heights' Park Avenue.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Houghton County, Michigan Houghton micropolitan area, Michigan Unincorporated communities in Michigan 1906 establishments in Michigan Populated places established in 1906