Oscoda ( ) 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 ...

(CDP) in Iosco County 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 CDP had a population of 916 at the 2020 census. The community is located within Au Sable Township and Oscoda Township at the mouth of the Au Sable River along

Lake Huron Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is shared on the north and east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the south and west by the U.S. state of Michigan. The name of the lake is derived from early French ex ...

History

The area was first settled as early as 1867 when the firm of Smith, Kelley, & Dwight purchased land here and platted the community. A post office under the name Au Sable served the area until the Oscoda post office was established on July 1, 1875. The name Oscoda is believed to come from

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 ...

, who used a shortened form of ossin and muscoda, which means a pebbly prairie. The Lumberman's Monument is located nearby and was dedicated in 1932 in honor of the early

lumberjack Lumberjack is a mostly North American term for workers in the logging industry who perform the initial harvesting and transport of trees. The term usually refers to loggers in the era before 1945 in the United States, when trees were felled us ...

s that first populated the area. The state of Michigan designated Oscoda as the official home of Paul Bunyan due to early documented publications in the ''Oscoda Press'' on August 10, 1906, by James MacGillivray. The article was later revised and published in ''

The Detroit News ''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United S ...

'' in 1910. Wurtsmith Air Force Base was a

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

commissioned in 1923 in Oscoda. During the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

, it was one of the state's three

Strategic Air Command Strategic Air Command (SAC) was a United States Department of Defense Specified Command and a United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command responsible for command and control of the strategic bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile compon ...

bases that housed

Boeing B-52 Stratofortress The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an American long-range, subsonic aircraft, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, which has continued to provide support and upgrades. It has been operated by the ...

jets. The air base was decommissioned in 1993. The area is now an ongoing

Superfund Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the United States Environmental Pro ...

site due to extensive groundwater contamination. Parts of the defunct air base now serve as the Oscoda–Wurtsmith Airport with no future plans for the rest of the facility. Oscoda was featured in the 2002 documentary film '' Bowling for Columbine'', in which director

Michael Moore Michael Francis Moore is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. Moore's work frequently addresses various Social issue, social, political, and economic topics. He first became publicly known for his award-winning debut ...

interviewed two young residents. Eric Harris, one of the perpetrators of the

Columbine High School massacre A school shooting and attempted bombing occurred on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, United States. The perpetrators, twelfth-grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 13 students and one teach ...

, spent some of his early years in Oscoda while his father served in the U.S. Air Force.

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 CDP has a total area of , of which is land and (8.42%) is water. The community is located on the northside of the Au Sable River at its river mouth at

. The community of Au Sable is on the southside of the river, and the surrounding areas are part of the

Huron National Forest The Huron National Forest is a United States National Forest, National Forest in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. It was established in 1909 after the logging era began to decline. In 1945, it was administratively combined with the Manistee Nati ...

. Au Sable is served by Oscoda Area Schools. The Shore to Shore Riding & Hiking Trail, which is a network of trails, has its eastern terminus in Oscoda.

Climate

This climatic region is typified by large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and cold (sometimes severely cold) winters. According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system, Oscoda has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

, abbreviated "Dfb" on climate maps.

Transportation

Airport

* Oscoda–Wurtsmith Airport is a public use airport that was created in 1993 from part of the disestablished Wurtsmith Air Force Base.

Bus

* Indian Trails has a station in Oscoda that is along the Owosso– St. Ignace route that follows U.S. Highway 23 at this point.

Major highways

* runs south–north along the eastern edge of the community near Lake Huron. * has its southern terminus at US 23 in Oscoda.

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 992 people, 460 households, and 260 families residing in the CDP. The population density was . There were 599 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the CDP was 94.15%

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 ...

, 0.40%

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 ...

, 1.21% Native American, 1.71% Asian, 0.71% from other races, and 1.81% 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 1.71% of the population. There were 460 households, out of which 24.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.9% 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, 7.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 43.3% were non-families. 38.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 17.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.14 and the average family size was 2.80. In the CDP, 22.4% of the population was under the age of 18, 4.8% was from 18 to 24, 24.9% from 25 to 44, 26.0% from 45 to 64, and 21.9% was 65 years of age or older. The median age was 44 years. For every 100 females, there were 88.2 males. For every 100 females aged 18 and over, there were 86.4 males. The median income for a household in the CDP was $30,000, and the median income for a family was $42,250. Males had a median income of $24,667 versus $22,772 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 CDP was $16,191. About 4.4% of families and 8.3% 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 6.4% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.

Media

Newspapers

*The
Iosco County News-Herald
' is the newspaper of record for Iosco County and has an office in Oscoda. *The
Oscoda Press
' is a weekly newspaper that serves the surrounding area.

Radio

* WCMB-FM 95.7 FM is a public radio simulcast of

Central Michigan University Central Michigan University (CMU) is a Public university, public research university in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, United States. It was established in 1892 as a private normal school and became a state institution in 1895. CMU is one of the eigh ...

's WCMU-FM that is broadcast in Oscoda. *

WWTH WWTH (100.7 FM broadcasting, FM), Oscoda, Michigan, is a radio station broadcasting a classic rock radio format, format to the Oscoda, Michigan, Oscoda, Tawas, Alpena, Michigan, Alpena area of northeastern lower Michigan. The station is known as ...

100.7 FM is a

classic rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

station that is also part of the Detroit Tigers Radio Network.

Notable people

* Jack Henry Abbott, author, career criminal, and convicted murderer * Charles Pierce Davey, boxer and boxing commissioner * Wally Gilbert, multi-sport professional athlete * Darryl Hall, professional football player * Charles McRae, professional football player and businessman * Travis Van Winkle, actor * Eric Harris, Columbine killer

References

External links

Au Sable and Oscoda Historical Society
{{authority control Census-designated places in Michigan Unincorporated communities in Michigan Unincorporated communities in Iosco County, Michigan Census-designated places in Iosco County, Michigan 1867 establishments in Michigan Populated places established in 1867 Former villages in Michigan Populated places on Lake Huron in the United States