Bad Axe’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 3 old photos of Bad Axe. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The city was established in 1905. The city's unusual name dates to the time of its settlement. While surveying the first state road through the Huron County wilderness in 1861, Rudolph Papst and George Willis Pack made camp at the future site of the city and found a much-used and badly damaged axe. At Pack's suggestion, Papst used the name “Bad Axe Camp” in the minutes of the survey and on a sign he placed along the main trail. The first post office in Bad Axe was established in 1870.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Bad Axe’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Bad Axe’s history is told.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewPlat book of Huron County, Michig…, 1904: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Bad Axe, decade by decade
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Plat book of Huron County, Michigan - also patron's business and general farmer's directory of Huron Co., Mich. - with … (1904) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.