Arcadia Township is a

civil township A civil township is a widely used unit of local government in the United States that is subordinate to a County (United States), county, most often in the northern and midwestern parts of the country. The term town is used in New England town, Ne ...

of Manistee County 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 township population was 657.

History

European settlement in Arcadia dates to 1866, when Dr. W. L. Dempster, G. W. Boss, and H. Huntington settled on Bar Lake, so named because a large

sandbar In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material, and rises from the bed of a body of water close to the surface or ...

separates it from

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 ...

(the lake is now called Arcadia Lake). The township was organized soon after, in 1870. The village of Arcadia was founded in 1880. In 1882 another village was founded on Bar Lake called Burnhamville and centered around a lumber mill. It had its own post office until 1895. Arcadia's early history was dominated by Henry Starke, a

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

an who established a lucrative lumber mill. Starke also established Trinity Lutheran Church, Arcadia's most prominent structure and a Michigan state historic site. The town thrived as a lumber town through the early 1900s. In 1906 Starke's lumber mill burned to the ground and was replaced by the Arcadia Furniture Factory. The town is the birthplace of Harriet Quimby, America's first female aviator. This is memorialized by a Michigan historical marker. For a list of other Michigan historical markers in the area, see Manistee County, Michigan.

Geography

Arcadia Township occupies the northwest corner of Manistee County. It is bordered to the north by Benzie County and to the west by

. Neighboring Manistee County townships are Pleasanton Township to the east, Bear Lake Township touching the southeast corner, and Onekama Township to the south. According to the

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

, Arcadia Township has a total area of , of which are land and , or 2.04%, are water. M-22 is the primary thoroughfare within the township, running north–south.

Communities

* Arcadia 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 ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

within the township, on the shore of

. Arcadia is located at . The elevation is above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. The ZIP code is 49613.

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 621 people, 280 households, and 197 families residing in the township. The population density was . There were 545 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the township was 98.55%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.16%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.32% Native American, 0.16% Asian, 0.16% from other races, and 0.64% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 1.13% of the population. There were 280 households, out of which 23.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.6% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 7.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.6% were non-families. 25.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.20 and the average family size was 2.57. In the township the population was spread out, with 19.6% under the age of 18, 3.2% from 18 to 24, 21.1% from 25 to 44, 31.9% from 45 to 64, and 24.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 49 years. For every 100 females, there were 87.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.9 males. The median income for a household in the township was $34,844, and the median income for a family was $41,731. Males had a median income of $24,844 versus $22,813 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the township was $23,089. About 9.8% of families and 13.3% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 25.0% of those under age 18 and 4.7% of those age 65 or over.

Notes

External links

*
Historic Arcadia, MichiganManistee Area Chamber of Commerce
{{authority control Populated places established in 1866 Townships in Manistee County, Michigan 1870 establishments in Michigan Townships in Michigan