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 ...
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 along M-28 within Columbus Township. As an unincorporated community, McMillan has no legally defined boundaries or population statistics of its own but does have its own post office with the 49853 ZIP Code.
History
The community of McMillan was first settled in 1881 when the
Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway
The Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway (DSS&A; ) was an American railroad serving the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the Lake Superior shoreline of Wisconsin. It provided service from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and St. Ignace, Michigan, w ...
built a line through the area. A rail depot named the McMillan Station opened to serve the area. The station and the new community were named after railway executive and future Michigan senator James McMillan. At the time, the area was part of western Chippewa County until Luce County was created in 1887.
McMillan received a post office on April 21, 1882. The post office has continuously remained in operation and is currently located at 22579 M-28 in the center of the community.
McMillan recorded a population of 40 in 1887. The community benefited from the increased lumber industry, and the railway connected it to many other communities within the Upper Peninsula. In 1910, the community reached a peak population of around 300 and consisted of several general stores, hotels, saloons, sawmill, livery, and the Northern Cooperage & Lumber Company. When the lumber industry declined, the community's population reduced to about 200 by 1927, and many businesses left. In 1919, M-25 was designated as a state highway that ran through McMillan. In 1928, the highway was redesignated as M-28. The railway line remains active and is operated by
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States.
CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...
but no longer contains a stop or railway station within McMillan.
The Columbus Township Cemetery, also known as the McMillan Cemetery, is located in the community along County Road 415 just south of M-28.
Lincoln School
Around 1910, the McMillan School was built to serve its residents. The building was constructed in an unusual way, in which there are no windows on the front of the building. These were referred to as "blind walls" that were meant to control lighting in the corner classrooms. The building did not receive electricity until 1925. In 1916, the school merged with the larger Standard School system in order to better serve the rural population. The same year, the building also received a significant addition as the student population grew. Until 1922, the school served students up to the eleventh grade, as twelfth grade students had to complete their education in Newberry. In 1923, the school saw its first graduating class of four students. In 1932, the building was rebranded as the Lincoln School, although budget restraints still caused some students to go to Newberry. The school closed by 1973 and students were consolidated into Tahquamenon Area Schools in Newberry. The building was purchased and turned into a bottling company that filtered water from the nearby Tahquamenon River, although the original structure now remains vacant.
Geography
The community of McMillan is located within southeast Columbus Township in the state's Upper Peninsula about west of the village of
Newberry
Newberry is a surname, a variant of Newbury. Notable people with the surname include:
* Booker Newberry III (1956–2023), American singer and keyboardist
* Brennan Newberry (born, 1990), American professional stock car racing driver
* Brian Ne ...
. McMillan sits at an elevation of above sea level. Some areas surrounding the community are included in the Sault Ste. Marie section of the
Lake Superior State Forest
Lake Superior State Forest is a state forest in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, United States. It is operated by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The North Country Trail utilizes this state forest for 43 miles (69 km) of i ...
.
McMillan is centered along M-28 and County Road 415 (known locally as McMillan Avenue). In addition to Newberry, other nearby communities include Dollarville to the east,
Curtis
Curtis or Curtiss is a common English given name and surname of Anglo-Norman origin, deriving from the Old French ''curteis'' (Modern French">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of Fren ...
and Helmer to the south, Seney to the west, and the smaller McMillan Corner directly to the south along H-33.
Along with Newberry, McMillan has one of only two current post offices in Luce County. The McMillan post office uses the 49853 ZIP Code. The post office serves a much larger area that includes most of Columbus Township and Lakefield Township, as well as a very small northern portion of Portage Township in
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 ...
to the south and the eastern fringes of Germfask Township in Schoolcraft County to the west. The community is served by Tahquamenon Area Schools in Newberry, which has the largest area of any public school district in the state.
The upper portion of the
Tahquamenon River
The Tahquamenon River ( ) is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed January 3, 2012 blackwater river in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The river flows ...
flows just north of the center of the community. The Columbus Township Hall is located in McMillan at 7459 County Road 415.
adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...
radio station that is licensed to McMillan and serves the Newberry area.
Gallery
File:McMillan, MI main street 1910.jpg,
File:McMillan Station (Michigan).jpg,
File:McMillan, MI post office.jpg,
File:Lincoln School (McMillan, MI).jpg,