Kalkaska County ( ) is 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, its population was 17,939. 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 Kalkaska. Kalkaska County is part of the Traverse City metropolitan area. Although it is located on Michigan's Lower Peninsula, Kalkaska County is considered part of

Northern Michigan Northern Michigan (also known as Northern Lower Michigan and colloquially within Michigan as "Up North") is a region of the U.S. state of Michigan. The region, which is distinct from the more northerly Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Upper Peninsul ...

History

Kalkaska County, originally named Wabassee County, was separated from Michilimackinac County in 1840, renamed in 1843. In 1851, Kalkaska County was attached to Grand Traverse County for legal purposes. The first settler in Kalkaska County was William Copeland, from England, who purchased land in the northwest corner of the county in 1855. Kalkaska County was organized in its own right on January 27, 1871. Crawford County was then temporarily attached to Kalkaska County for legal purposes.

Etymology

The county's name is a pseudo-Native American word coined by

Henry Schoolcraft Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (March 28, 1793 – December 10, 1864) was an American geographer, geologist, and ethnologist, noted for his early studies of Native American cultures, as well as for his 1832 expedition to the source of the Mississippi ...

, a Michigan geographer and ethnologist. The name is thought to be a Chippewa word meaning flat or burned-over country. An alternative theory is that this is a

neologism In linguistics, a neologism (; also known as a coinage) is any newly formed word, term, or phrase that has achieved popular or institutional recognition and is becoming accepted into mainstream language. Most definitively, a word can be considered ...

or neonym created by

, originally spelled Calcasca. Some theorists suggest this is word play. Schoolcraft's family name had been Calcraft, and the Ks may have been added to make the name appear more like a Native American word.

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 (1.9%) are covered by water. Kalkaska sand, the state soil of Michigan, was named after the county because of the large amounts deposited in the area from

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

s in the

Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

. Kalkaska County has over 80 lakes and of streams and rivers. Much of the county is marshland. County elevation ranges from to about . This makes it one of the more uneven counties in the Lower Peninsula. The Pere Marquette State Forest covers much of the county. Glaciers shaped the area, creating a unique regional ecosystem. A large portion of the area is the Grayling outwash plain, a broad outwash plain including sandy ice-disintegration ridges, jack pine barrens, some white pine-red pine forest, and northern hardwood forest. Large lakes were created by glacial action.

Lakes

* Torch Lake * Starvation Lake * Lake Skegemog * Bear Lake * Manistee Lake * Grass Lake * Rainbow Lake * Blue Lake * Cub Lake * Twin Lake * Little Twin Lake * Pickerel Lake * Squaw Lake * Indian Lake * Perch Lake * Crawford Lake * Lost Lake * Johnson Rd Lake * Log Lake * Selkirk Lake *

Kettle Lake A kettle (also known as a kettle hole, kettlehole, or pothole) is a depression or hole in an outwash plain formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters. The kettles are formed as a result of blocks of dead ice left behind by retreating ...

* Lake Placid * Sand Lake * Twenty Eight Lakes * East Lake * Long Lake * Lake Five * Wheeler Lake * Fife Lake

Rivers

* Boardman River * Little Rapid River * Manistee River * Rapid River * Torch River

Major highways

* – runs NE through the western part of the county. Enters at north of SW corner; exits into Antrim County near midpoint of north county line. * – runs north–south through west-central part of county. Passes Kalkaska. * – runs east and ESE through middle portion of county. Passes Kalkaska.

Adjacent counties

* Antrim County – north * Otsego County – northeast * Crawford County – east * Roscommon County – southeast * Missaukee County – south * Wexford County – southwest * Grand Traverse County – west

Communities

Village

* Kalkaska (county seat)

Civil townships

* Bear Lake Township * Blue Lake Township * Boardman Township * Clearwater Township * Coldsprings Township * Excelsior Township * Garfield Township * Kalkaska Township * Oliver Township * Orange Township * Rapid River Township * Springfield Township

Former townships

* Glade Township * Wilson Township

Census-designated places

* Bear Lake * Manistee Lake * Rapid City * South Boardman

Unincorporated communities

* Barker Creek * Crofton * Darragh * Houseman * Leetsville * Lodi *

Sigma Sigma ( ; uppercase Σ, lowercase σ, lowercase in word-final position ς; ) is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 200. In general mathematics, uppercase Σ is used as an operator ...

* Spencer * Torch River

Demographics

At the 2010 United States census there were 16,571 people, 6,428 households, and 4,634 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 10,822 housing units at an average density of . By the 2020 census, its population was 17,939. In 2010, the racial makeup of the county was 98.44%

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 ...

, 0.21%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

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 ...

, 0.78% Native American, 0.22% Asian, 0.05%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 0.10% from other races, 0.86% of the population were

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. 24.6% were of German, 12.4% English, 10.4% Irish, 10.0% American, 6.3% Polish and 5.1% French ancestry. 98.8% spoke English as their first language.

Government

Kalkaska County voters have been reliably Republican from the start. They have selected the Republican Party nominee in 86% of national elections (31 of 36). The county government operates the

jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are imprisoned under the authority of the state, usually as punishment for various cr ...

, maintains rural roads, operates the major local courts, records deeds, mortgages, and vital records, 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.

Events

The National Trout Festival is an annual festival since 1936, held in April. It notes the heritage and sportsmanship of Kalkaska.

Education

The Northwest Educational Services, based in Traverse City, services the students in the county along with those of Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, and Leelanau. 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. Kalkaska 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: * Excelsior Township School District #1 * Forest Area Community Schools * Kalkaska Public Schools

References

External links

* {{Coord, 44.69, -85.08, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-MI_source:UScensus1990 Michigan counties Traverse City metropolitan area 1871 establishments in Michigan Populated places established in 1871