Menominee County (pop. 24,029) is southeast of Dickinson County. “Menominee” is a Native American word meaning “wild rice.”

The county seat is the city of Menominee (pop. 8,599), located on Green Bay (an arm of Lake Michigan), across the Menominee River from Marinette, Wisconsin.

Michigan on the right, Wisconsin on the left

The Menominee River begins about 115 miles to the north, near the city of Iron Mountain.

In the late 1800s, when Michigan was America’s leading producer of lumber, Menominee’s sawmills produced more lumber than any other city in the country.

The red-brick Menominee County Courthouse was built in 1875.

In Classical Revival style

St. John the Baptist Church in Menominee (1922) is now the Heritage Museum of the Menominee County Historical Society.

It closed as a church in 1972.

The Menominee North Pier Lighthouse is still in operation.

Built in 1927

A small car known as the “Dudly Bug” was manufactured by the Dudly Tool Company in Menominee from 1913 to 1915.

Only about 100 were ever made.

J.W. Wells State Park, northeast of Menominee along Green Bay, was established in 1925, thanks to a donation of land by the children of John Walter Wells, a pioneer lumberman in the county.

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