A history of Lake,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Lake from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story so far
from Wikipedia & the U.S. CensusLake Township is a civil township of Benzie County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 694 at the 2020 census. The township is irregularly shaped, following the shore of Lake Michigan from Crystal Lake north to the border with Leelanau County. A portion of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is located in the northern end of the township.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 759 to 694 (-9%). Half of its homes were built before 1978.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Lake yet — the old photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Intro from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Population and housing: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Lake’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewLake Gogebic, Michigan, the hotel, 1880: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people close to Lake
See all 10 →
Lake, decade by decade
1990s
1 historic place in Lake
1 place in Lake is on the National Register of Historic Places, the country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
Where they are
When they were listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Lake Gogebic, Michigan, the hotel (1880) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom the Library of Congress (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.