Hendricks Township Michigan Fire Station Epoufette

Hendricks 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 ...

Mackinac County Mackinac County ( , ) is a County (United States), county in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 10,834. The county seat is St. Ignace, Michigan, St. Ignace. F ...

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, ...

. The population was 117 at the 2020 census, down from 153 in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Geography

The township is west of the center of Mackinac County, on the northern shore 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 ...

. It is bordered to the east by Moran Township and to the west by Hudson Township, both in Mackinac County; and by Hulbert Township to the north and Trout Lake Township to the northeast, both in Chippewa County. 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 ...

, Hendricks Township has a total area of , of which are land and (2.62%) are water.

Communities

* Caffey, along with the nearby Caffey Corner, was a lumber settlement at . It is on H-40. West of Caffey, H-40 is also known as the "Hiawatha Trail". At Caffey Corner, the Hiawatha Trail branches off to the south to end at

US 2 U.S. Route 2 or U.S. Highway 2 (US 2) is an east–west United States Numbered Highway spanning across the northern continental United States. US 2 consists of two segments connected by various roadways in southern Canada. ...

east of Epoufette. H-40 continues east from Caffey approximately to Trout Lake and from there on to Rudyard just west of

I-75 Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Southeastern United States, Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end ...

. Its station on the

Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railway The Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad (MStP&SSM; ) was a Class I railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the Midwestern United States. Commonly known since its opening in 1884 as the Soo Line after the phonetic sp ...

was originally called "Lewis", but because at the time there was another post office named Lewis in Michigan, it was given a post office named "Caffey", after the Pennsylvania-born

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

veteran William N. Caffey, who became the first postmaster in November 1899. The office closed in September 1909 and re-opened with Caffey as postmaster in June 1913. The post office closed permanently in December 1916. * Epoufette 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 the township on

at . In 1848, a government surveyor, John R. McLeod, found an

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 ...

village here. Amable Goudreau began a commercial fishing business here in 1859, but it did not get a post office until lumbering operations began. McLeod became the first postmaster in December 1879. The name,

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

for "place of rest", was given by early French settlers because it was believed that Father

Jacques Marquette Jacques Marquette, Society of Jesus, S.J. (; June 1, 1637 – May 18, 1675), sometimes known as Père Marquette or James Marquette, was a French Society of Jesus, Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Ste. M ...

used the harbor as the first step on his trip down Lake Michigan from St. Ignace. A historical marker commemorating the fishing village was erected in 1986. A summer post office operated here from 1959 to 1965 and 1966–1972. *Fiborn Quarry was a settlement around a limestone quarry.Walter Romig, ''Michigan Place Names'', p. 196

References

{{authority control Townships in Mackinac County, Michigan Townships in Michigan Michigan populated places on Lake Michigan