This describes how Michigan came to have overlapping boundaries for townships, villages cities, school districts, county commission districts, congressional districts, Zip codes ... I made it for journalism students at Michigan State University. Joe Grimm

1. Cities, villages, townships
& more
& more
How places got to be the way they are
Joe Grimm
JRN 300

2. Systems collide
Counties are biggest
Townships are the basic grid
Cities comes out of townships
Are unincorporated places real?
One-room schoolhouses grew up
Ta-da! The Post Office

3. Counties
Michigan has 83.
We are the only state
where the capital city
is not in a county seat.

4. Ingham: A bunch of squares
The reason Ingham
looks this way goes
back to 1787.
Times were simple
then.
(No, I don’t remember
personally.)

5. Northwest Ordinance, 1787

6. Northwest Ordinance also ...
Set rules for statehood (leading to the Michigan-Ohio
war for Toledo)
Defined this area as part of the Midwest
Abolished slavery in the area
But did not emancipate slaves there

7. People build cities
... by rivers and rail

8. Cities come to Ingham
People carve
cities out of
townships.
And Ingham has
an X factor ...

9. ’scuse our dust

10. Cities determine highways

11. But little places hang on
Unincorporated and
PROUD! (Try telling
them they don’t exist.)

12. Schools: From one room ...
districts
Pink School in
Mason was
moved to make
room for a road
project.

14. ... to districts
94% of Okemos High School’s 1,390 students
go on to college

15. It has not been without trouble
In 1927, 45 were
killed and almost 60
others injured in the
attack on the Bath
school. It was about
consolidation and
taxes.

16. Michigan has 500+ districts
They do
not follow
city or
township
or even
county
lines.

17. Neither do Zip codes ...

18. ... nor ...
U.S. Congressional districts
State House and Senate districts
County commission districts

19. Understand and ask
We focus on taxing entities:
Townships
Cities
School districts
County

20. Thank you.