Antrim County ( ) is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

located in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

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, ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,431. The

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

is Bellaire. The name is taken from

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. Antrim County is home to Torch Lake, Michigan's deepest and second-largest inland lake. Torch Lake, famous for its clear and blue waters, is part of the Chain of Lakes Watershed, most of which lies within Antrim County. The county is bordered to the west by

Grand Traverse Bay Grand Traverse Bay ( ) is an arm of Lake Michigan, located along the west coast of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The bay is separated from the rest of Lake Michigan by the Leelanau Peninsula. The bay is some long, ranges from wide, and up ...

, a bay of

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and depth () after Lake Superior and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the ...

History

Meegisee County ( ) was separated from Michilimackinac County as an unorganized county in 1840. It took its name from a Chippewa chief who signed the

1821 Treaty of Chicago The Treaty of Chicago may refer to either of two treaties made and signed in the settlement that became Chicago, Illinois between the United States and the Odawa (anglicized Ottawa), Ojibwe (anglicized Chippewa), and Bodéwadmi (anglicized Pot ...

and the 1826 Treaty of Mississinewas. Meegisee also derives from the

Ojibwe The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...

', meaning

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche ...

. The county was renamed Antrim County in 1843, one of the Irish names given to five renamed Michigan counties at that time, supposedly in deference to the increasing number of settlers of Irish heritage in Michigan at that time. In the text of the 1843 legislative act, the name was misspelled as "Antim". In 1851, for governmental purposes, Antrim County was attached to Grand Traverse County. Separate county government was organized in 1863. The county seat was originally located in Elk Rapids, but was moved to Bellaire in 1904 after 25 years of litigation. In 1950 its population was 10,721. YMCA Camp Hayo-Went-Ha, the oldest American summer camp that sits on its original site, was opened on the shore of Torch Lake in Central Lake Township in 1904. Antrim County, which has reliably elected Republicans, was in national headlines during the 2020 presidential election because the unofficial tally showed Biden surprisingly ahead on election night. When the County Clerk realized that it was caused by human error, she corrected the tally before submitting to the Secretary of State for

certification Certification is part of testing, inspection and certification and the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestatio ...

. Nonetheless, this error and a related lawsuit have been cited in multiple election conspiracies.

Geography

According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (21%) is water. Antrim County is flanked to the west by

, a bay of

. Most of the bodies of water within the Chain of Lakes, including Torch Lake, are within Antrim County.

Lakes

* Lake Arthur * Bass Lake * Bates Lake * Beals Lake * Lake Bellaire * Benway Lake * Birch Lake * Boat Lake * Browning Lake * Carpenter Lake * Clam Lake * Eaton Lake * Elk Lake * Ellsworth Lake * Finn Lake * Grass Lake * Green Lake * Hanley Lake * Harwood Lake * Hawk Lake * Henry Lake * Intermediate Lake * Lake of the Woods * Lime Lake * Little Torch Lake * Lyman Lake * Maplehurst Lake * Moblo Lake * Mud Lake * Scotts Lake * Six Mile Lake * Lake Skegemog * Skinner Lake * Smith Lake * St. Clair Lake * Thayer Lake * Toad Lake * Torch Lake * Wetzel Lake * Wilson Lake

Rivers

* Boyne River * Cedar River * Dingman River * Elk River * Grass River * Green River * Intermediate River *

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan (, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn''; , ''Nəhar hayYardēn''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Sharieat'' (), is a endorheic river in the Levant that flows roughly north to south through the Sea of Galilee and drains to the Dead ...

Manistee River The Manistee River ( ', seldom referred to as the Big Manistee River) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed November 21, 2011 river in the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. s ...

* Torch River

Adjacent counties

By land * Charlevoix County (north) * Otsego County (east) * Crawford County (southeast) * Kalkaska County (south) * Grand Traverse County (southwest) By water * Leelanau County (west)

Communities

Villages

* Bellaire (county seat) * Central Lake * Elk Rapids * Ellsworth * Mancelona

Civil townships

* Banks Township * Central Lake Township * Chestonia Township * Custer Township * Echo Township * Elk Rapids Township * Forest Home Township * Helena Township * Jordan Township * Kearney Township * Mancelona Township * Milton Township * Star Township * Torch Lake Township * Warner Township

Census-designated places

Alba ''Alba'' ( , ) is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is also, in English-language historiography, used to refer to the polity of Picts and Scots united in the ninth century as the Kingdom of Alba, until it developed into the Kingd ...

* Alden * Eastport * Lakes of the North

Unincorporated communities

* Antrim * Atwood * Chestonia * Clam River * Creswell * Elmira * Finkton * Green River * Kewadin * North Arms * Pleasant Valley *

Snowflake A snowflake is a single ice crystal that is large enough to fall through the Earth's atmosphere as snow.Knight, C.; Knight, N. (1973). Snow crystals. Scientific American, vol. 228, no. 1, pp. 100–107.Hobbs, P.V. 1974. Ice Physics. Oxford: C ...

* Torch Lake * Torch River * Wetzel

Ghost towns

* Antrim City *

Comfort Comfort is a state of physical or psychological ease, often characterized by the absence of hardship. Individuals experiencing a lack of comfort are typically described as uncomfortable or in discomfort. A degree of psychological comfort can b ...

Elgin Elgin may refer to: Places Canada * Elgin County, Ontario * Elgin Settlement, a 19th-century community for freed slaves located in present-day North Buxton and South Buxton, Ontario * Elgin, a village in Rideau Lakes, Ontario * Elgin, Manit ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

Indian reservations

* Grand Traverse Indian Reservation, which has territories in five counties, occupies two small sections within Helena Township and one section in Milton Township.

Demographics

As of the 2010 United States census, there were 23,580 people, 9,890 households, and 6,925 families in the county. By 2020, its population was 23,431.

Government

Antrim County has been reliably Republican since its organization. Since 1884 its voters have selected the Republican Party nominee in 94% (34 of 36) of the national elections through 2024. Antrim County operates the County jail, maintains rural roads, operates the major local courts, records deeds, mortgages, and

vital records Vital records are records of life events kept under governmental authority, including birth certificates, marriage licenses (or marriage certificates), separation agreements, divorce certificates or divorce party and death certificates. In some j ...

, administers

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...

regulations, and participates with the state in the provision of social services. The county board of commissioners controls the budget and has limited authority to make laws or ordinances. In Michigan, most local government functions – police and fire, building and zoning, tax assessment, street maintenance etc. – are the responsibility of individual cities and townships.

Elected officials

Prosecuting Attorney A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in civil law. The prosecution is the legal party responsible ...

: Wilson Brott *

Sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...

: Kevin S. Hoch *

County Clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts record keeping as well as general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keepin ...

: Victoria Bishop * County Treasurer: Sherry A. Comben * Register of Deeds: Patty Niepoth *

Drain Commissioner A drain commissioner is an elected official in county government of the U.S. state of Michigan who is responsible for planning, developing and maintaining surface water drainage systems under Public Act 40 of 1956. In counties with a population und ...

: Leslie Meyers * County Surveyor: Scott Papineau (information as of March 2025)

Education

The Northwest Educational Services, based in Traverse City, services the students in the county along with those of Benzie, Grand Traverse, Leelanau, and Kalkaska. The intermediate school district offers regional

special education Special education (also known as special-needs education, aided education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, and SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates their individual di ...

services, early education and English learner programs, and technical career pathways for students of its districts. Antrim County is served by the following regular

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

school district A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public Primary school, primary or Secondary school, secondary schools or both in various countries. It is not to be confused with an attendance zone, which is within a school dis ...

s: * Alba Public Schools * Bellaire Public Schools * Boyne City Public Schools * Boyne Falls Public School District * Central Lake Public Schools * Charlevoix Public Schools * East Jordan Public Schools * Elk Rapids Schools * Ellsworth Community Schools * Gaylord Community Schools * Mancelona Public Schools Antrim County has the one

private school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

, the Ebenezer Christian School (

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

Transportation

State-maintained highways

* is a north–south highway that runs along the shore of

in western Antrim County, passing through the communities of Elk Rapids, Torch Lake, Eastport, and Atwood. South of Antrim County, US 31 enters Traverse City, and continues further south along the

, passing cities such as Manistee, Ludington, Muskegon, Grand Haven,

Holland Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former provinces of the Netherlands, province on the western coast of the Netherland ...

, and

Benton Harbor Benton Harbor is a city in Berrien County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is 46 miles southwest of Kalamazoo and 71 miles southwest of Grand Rapids. According to the 2020 census, its population was 9,103. It is the smaller, by population, of ...

. North of Antrim County, US 31 passes through

Charlevoix Charlevoix ( , ) is a cultural and natural region in Quebec, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River as well as in the Laurentian Mountains area of the Canadian Shield. This dramatic landscape includes rolling terrain, fjords, headlands ...

and Petoskey before terminating at

Interstate 75 Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end in 5, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, traveling from S ...

south of

Mackinaw City Mackinaw City ( ) is a village at the northernmost point of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, United States. Divided between Cheboygan and Emmet counties, Mackinaw City is located at the southern end of the Mackinac Bridge, which carries Interst ...

. * in Antrim County follows a largely southwest–northeast route in the pastoral east of the county, passing through the communities of Mancelona and

. Following a north–south route further inland than US 31, the highway passes through cities to the south such as

Kalamazoo Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 73,598. It is the principal city of the Kalamazoo–Portage metropolitan are ...

Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is the largest city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, United States. With a population of 198,917 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 200,117 in 2024, Grand Rapids is the List of municipalities ...

and

Cadillac Cadillac Motor Car Division, or simply Cadillac (), is the luxury vehicle division (business), division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Its major markets are the United States, Canada and China; Cadillac models are ...

. North of Antrim County, the highway terminates at US 31 in Petoskey. * is an east–west highway in northeastern Antrim County. The highway begins at East Jordan, just north of the Antrim County line, and continues east toward Elmira, Gaylord,

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Hillman Hillman was a British automobile marque created by the Hillman-Coatalen Company, founded in 1907, renamed the Hillman Motor Car Company in 1910. The company was based in Ryton-on-Dunsmore, near Coventry, England. Before 1907 the company had ...

, and Alpena. In Antrim County, M-32 shares a brief concurrency with US 131. * is a north–south highway that runs through central Antrim County. The highway enters from the south via a concurrency with US 131. At Mancelona, M-66 takes on an independent route, running north to East Jordan before terminating at US 31 at Charlevoix. South of Antrim County, M-66 runs through communities such as Sturgis,

Battle Creek Battle Creek is a city in northwestern Calhoun County, Michigan, United States, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo River, Kalamazoo and Battle Creek River, Battle Creek rivers. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a tota ...

Ionia Ionia ( ) was an ancient region encompassing the central part of the western coast of Anatolia. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements. Never a unified state, it was named after the Ionians who ...

, Lake City, and Kalkaska. * is an s-shaped highway, signed as an east–west route, that runs entirely within Antrim County. The highway serves to connect Antrim County's interior villages, Bellaire and Central Lake, with US 31 at Eastport and US 131/M-66 at Mancelona.

County-designated highways

* serves as an easterly extension of M-88. The highway begins at US 131/M-66 in Mancelona, and continues east to Otsego County. * serves as a cutoff between US 131 at Alba and M-32 west of Gaylord in Otsego County. * is an east–west route in northwest Antrim County, connecting US 31 near Atwood to the village of Ellsworth and M-66 at East Jordan. * is a north–south route in northern Antrim County, connecting Ellsworth to US 31 in Charlevoix County. * is a short route in northeastern Antrim County, serving as a direct route between M-32 and M-75 near Boyne City.

Airports

* Antrim County Airport - county-owned public-use airport, northeast of Bellaire, for general aviation. One paved runway. No airline service.

References

External links

Antrim County Website

Antrim County Online News Website and Event List
{{Coord, 45.01, -85.18, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-MI_source:UScensus1990 Michigan counties Populated places established in 1863 1863 establishments in Michigan