Deer Park 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 Luce 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, ...

. The community is located within McMillan Township. As an unincorporated community, Deer Park has no legally defined boundaries or population statistics of its own. Settled as early as 1876, the community is centered along the eastern terminus of H-58 and County Road 407 along the shores of

Lake Superior Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. Lake Michigan–Huron has a larger combined surface area than Superior, but is normally considered tw ...

. Muskallonge Lake State Park is within the vicinity of Deer Park.

History

Western Reserve - Muskallonge State Park

Deer Park was originally settled as a Native American encampment.Muskallonge Lake State Park
Michigan Department of Natural Resources The community was later settled as a

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

-milling town. The Cook and Wilson Lumber Company purchased the first

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

in the community in 1876. Deer Park expanded after Bradley and Hurst bought the mill ten years later. At the town's peak, it had a population of 400 people, making it one of the largest white pine logging communities. The mill produced 16,000

board feet The board foot or board-foot is a unit of measurement for the volume of lumber in the United States and Canada. It equals the volume of a board that is in length, one foot in width, and in thickness, or exactly liters. Board foot can be abbrev ...

every 24 hours. The Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railroad built a branch from Newberry to Deer Park to serve the mill, though the railroad was eventually removed. A post office opened July 12, 1888 with W.L.M. Powell was the first postmaster. The post office closed on January 15, 1900, due to the town's declining population. By the early 1900s, the lumber supply was gone from Deer Park, the sawmill closed, and Deer Park's population began to decline. The only remaining signs of the lumber industry are piles of sawdust and some pine logs in Muskallonge Lake, which was used to soften the logs before they were milled. The

shipping industry Maritime transport (or ocean transport) or more generally waterborne transport, is the transport of people (passengers or goods (cargo) via waterways. Freight transport by watercraft has been widely used throughout recorded history, as it provi ...

was also significant in Deer Park. The community was located on Lake Superior's Shipwreck Coast. The Deer Park (formerly Muskallonge Lake) Station was the site of one of six Lake Superior stations of the Lifesaving Service between

Munising, Michigan Munising ( ') is a city in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Alger County, Michigan. The population was 1,986 at the 2020 census. The city is partially surrounded by Munising Township, but the two are a ...

and Vermilion Point. In 1892, the propeller SS ''Western Reserve'' sank about 35 miles northwest of Deer Park with the loss of all but the wheelsman. In 1907, the SS ''Cyprus'' sank north of Deer Park; all but one of its crew members died.

Present-day community

Since the 21st century, it has remained an unincorporated community, also containing a lodge and a

general store A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer, village shop, or country store) is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, someti ...

, which primarily cater to visitors to the state park. Deer Park is the terminus of County Highways H-37 ''(aka: CR 407)'' and H-58.

References

External links

Michigan Lighthouse Conservancy: Deer Park Life Saving Station
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Luce County, Michigan Unincorporated communities in Michigan Michigan populated places on Lake Superior Populated places established in 1876 1876 establishments in Michigan