Drummond Township, Michigan

• Drummond (or Drummond Island) is an unincorporated community on Potagannissing Bay on the northwest side of the island at {{Coord|46|01|12|N|83|43|52|W}}.{{GNIS|1617360|Drummond, Michigan}} It was named after British commander Gordon Drummond, who built a fort here after the War of 1812. He abandoned the fort in 1822 when it was apparent that the island would become American territory. By the 1850s, the area was settled by Mormon missionaries and Native Americans. A post office in Drummond began operating on February 9, 1881. The post office was renamed Drummond Island on July 1, 1953.{{sfn|Romig|1986|page=163}} The Drummond Island 49726 ZIP Code serves the entirety of Drummond Township.{{google maps |url = https://www.google.com/maps/place/Drummond,+MI+49726/@46.0139605,-83.8275033,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x4d341f8f616a7ded:0x2986ce3fe68d423e!8m2!3d45.9939894!4d-83.6367685!16s%2Fm%2F03ds5s6?entry=ttu |title = 49726 ZIP Code map |access-date = May 4, 2023 }}{{cite web|last=UnitedStatesZipCodes.org|url=https://www.unitedstateszipcodes.org/49726/|title=ZIP Code 49726: Drummond Island|date=2024|access-date=May 4, 2024}}
• Johnswood (also spelled as Johns Wood) is an unincorporated community on the southern coast of the island at {{coord|45.9508543|-83.6222194|format=dms}}.{{GNIS|1617648|Johnswood, Michigan}} The community was settled around 1905 when the Kreetan Company from Tonawanda, New York took over the area sawmills. It was originally named Scammon's Cove after the small bay. A post office began operating under the name Kreetan on September 7, 1905. The post office was renamed Johns Wood when Harold Johnson became postmaster on March 19, 1914. The post office remained in operation until 1927.{{sfn|Romig|1986|page=294}}
• Lincoln is an unincorporated community near the center of Drummond Island at {{coord|45.9739100|-83.6563878|format=dms}}.{{GNIS|630441|Lincoln, Michigan}}
• Maxton is an unincorporated community located at {{coord|46.0339101|-83.6758339|format=dms}}.{{GNIS|1617364|Maxton, Michigan}} The community was established by the Cleveland Cedar Company in 1904 as a sawmill settlement along Potagannissing Bay a few miles northeast of Drummond. For the next three decades, several other sawmills began operating here.{{cite book | last = Dodge| first = Ray| year = 1996 | title = Michigan Ghost Towns: Of the Upper Peninsula (formerly Michigan Ghost Towns, Vol. III) | orig-year= 1973 | publisher = Thunder Bay Press Michigan | location = Alpena, Michigan | isbn = 9780934884020| pages = 59 }} A post office in Maxton operated from 1904 until 1950.{{sfn|Romig|1986|page=358}}

File:Drummond Island Quarry- East End Looking East - DPLA - b582ab8e930a14a5a1467351e77e6a7a.jpg

The township and island are named after Gordon Drummond, the first Canadian-born officer to command the military and the civil government of British Canada. As Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, Drummond distinguished himself on the Niagara front in the War of 1812 and later became Governor-General and Administrator of Canada.{{Cite web |title = Drummond Island, Michigan |url = http://www.upperpeninsulaonline.com/html/drummond_island.html |access-date = October 5, 2012 }} The Ojibwe name for the island is Bootaagan-minising (syncope as Bootaagan-mnising[http://www.freelang.net/dictionary/ojibwe.html Freelang Ojibwe Dictionary] recorded as "Potagannissing"),{{cite book |last = Bamford |first = Don |title = Four Years on the Great Lakes, 1813-1816: The Journal of Lieutenant David Wingfield, Royal Navy |year = 2009 |publisher = Natural Heritage Books - The Dundurn Group |isbn = 978-1-55488-393-6 |page = 259 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=r5eoVCxNkFQC&q=Drummond+Island+native+name&pg=PA259 |author2 = Paul Carroll |access-date = December 17, 2013 }} meaning "at the Mill Island".

The history of Drummond Island dates back centuries, but more recent history of the past 200 years relates to the British occupation of the island during and after the War of 1812. The island was the last British outpost on American soil following the Treaty of Ghent (1814). On October 6, 1828, orders were sent out from Quebec that the post would be handed over, and the island was officially occupied by United States on November 14, 1828.{{Cite web |title = Michigan History: The first residents of Drummond Island |date = July 3, 2008 |url = http://www.absolutemichigan.com/dig/michigan/michigan-history-the-first-residents-of-drummond-island/ |access-date = October 5, 2012 }} Drummond Island was originally recorded by Americans as First Manitoulin Island and Drummond's Island.

File:Islands of north-east Lake Huron.PNG

British and American negotiators to the 1814 Treaty of Ghent ended the War of 1812 by offering no territorial concessions to either side, but returned to those boundaries set by the Treaty of Paris of 1783. To resolve territorial claims that had precipitated the war, negotiators at Ghent established a process whereby commissioners would survey the boundary to determine the borders envisioned in the original treaty.

Beginning in August 1820, two teams of surveyors, including British explorer and cartographer David Thompson, mapped the area of St. Joseph Island, Drummond Island, and Lesser and Greater Manitou Islands (today Cockburn and Manitoulin islands). Mapping this corner of Lake Huron was a challenge given that little was known about the shores and depths of the channels between the islands. The agent for the United States survey team, Major Joseph Delafield, complained, "No map that I have seen has any truth as it respects the position of Drummond's or the other islands about St. Marys. We entered this bay without a pilot, but are told we cannot proceed up river without one."{{cite journal |last = Carroll |first = Francis M. |title = The Search for the Canadian-American boundary along the Michigan frontier, 1819-1827: The Boundary Commissions under Articles Six and Seven of the Treaty of Ghent |journal = Michigan Historical Review |date = Fall 2004 |volume = 30 |issue = 2 |pages = 77–104 |doi = 10.2307/20174082 |jstor = 20174082 }}

Based on the surveys taken in the summers of 1820 and 1821, and guided by the commission's two principles that the boundary would not divide islands and that the number of islands would be apportioned equally between the two countries, in November and December 1821, commissioners agreed to grant St. Joseph Island and Cockburn Island to Canada and Drummond Island, which lies between them, to the United States.

File:Drummond, MI post office.jpg

According to the US Census Bureau, the township has a total area of {{convert|644.9|km2|disp=flip}}, of which {{convert|333.9|km2|disp=flip}} is land and {{convert|311.0|km2|disp=flip}}, or 48.23%, is water.{{cite web |title=Geographic Identifiers: 2010 Demographic Profile Data (G001): Drummond Island township, Chippewa County MI |url=http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/DEC/10_DP/G001/0600000US2603323080 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20200212145428/http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/DEC/10_DP/G001/0600000US2603323080 |archive-date=February 12, 2020 |access-date=September 24, 2014 |publisher=US Census Bureau, American Factfinder}} The island is dominated by forest, with cliffs on the eastern side, which are part of the Niagara Escarpment.

Most of the island, approximately {{frac|2|3}}, is state land owned by the state of Michigan.{{cite map |author = Michigan Department of Natural Resources |author-link = Michigan Department of Natural Resources |date = April 18, 2016 |url = http://www.michigandnr.com/publications/pdfs/huntingwildlifehabitat/sga/Reference-map_all_Drummond_Island_map.pdf |title = Drummond Island |scale = [c. 1:202,752] |location = Lansing |publisher = Michigan Department of Natural Resources |access-date = May 25, 2019 }} The island hosts a rare environment known as alvar, a grassy limestone plain found only in a few places worldwide.{{cite web |first = Betty |last = Bailey |date = n.d. |url = http://www.drummondislandchamber.com/index.php?page=Alvar |title = Alvar |publisher = Drummond Island Tourism Association |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161119173945/http://www.drummondislandchamber.com/index.php?page=Alvar |archive-date = November 19, 2016 }} Drummond Island is the largest island in the Manitoulin Island chain to be part of the United States.

Drummond Township is one of only seven municipalities in the state of Michigan to consist entirely of islands, including Grosse Ile Township, St. James Township, Bois Blanc Township, Mackinac Island, Peaine Township, and Sugar Island Township.

• {{jct|M|134|state=MI}} is the sole highway serving the island. The Drummond Island Ferry connects M-134 to the island from DeTour Village. West of there, M-134 parallels the shore of Lake Huron, until it meets I-75 near St. Ignace. It is one of three state trunkline highways on islands in Michigan; the others being M-154 on Harsens Island, and M-185 on Mackinac Island.

{{US Census population

|1890= 496

|1900= 499

|1910= 624

|1920= 711

|1930= 294

|1940= 317

|1950= 448

|1960= 501

|1970= 479

|1980= 746

|1990= 835

|2000= 992

|2010= 1058

|2020= 973

}}

In 2020, the township had a population of 973.

• List of populated islands of the Great Lakes
• Jasper conglomerate (Drummond Island puddingstone)
• Niagara Escarpment
• Gordon Drummond
• War of 1812
• Drummond Island Airport

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |first1=Walter |last1=Romig |title=Michigan Place Names: The History of the Founding and the Naming of More Than Five Thousand Past and Present Michigan Communities |type=Paperback |orig-date= 1973 |date=October 1, 1986 |publisher=Wayne State University Press |isbn = 978-0-8143-1838-6 |location=Detroit, Michigan| pages=163, 294, 358}}

• [https://www.drummondislandtownship.org/ Drummond Township, Michigan]
• [http://www.visitdrummondisland.com/ Drummond Island Tourism Association]
• Kelley, J.G., (2009) [https://www.visitdrummondisland.com/puddingstones.html Drummond Island Puddingstone.] Drummond Island Tourism Association, Drummond Island, Michigan.

{{Chippewa County, Michigan}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Townships in Michigan

Category:Townships in Chippewa County, Michigan

Category:Populated places established in 1888

Category:1888 establishments in Michigan

Category:Populated places on Lake Huron in the United States

Category:Niagara Escarpment