Manistee County (pop. 24,733) is west of Wexford County, along Lake Michigan. It’s the only Manistee County in the U.S.
The word “Manistee” was apparently derived from an Ojibwe word meaning “river with islands at its mouth.”
Kayaking on Manistee River
The county seat is the city of Manistee (pop. 6,226), located where the Manistee River flows into Lake Michigan.
Orchard Beach State Park is just north of Manistee.
Camping along Lake Michigan
The Vogue Theatre, in the Art Deco style, opened in Manistee in 1938.
Recently reopened
The Ramsdell Theater in Manistee was built in 1903.
Now home of the Manistee Civic Players
The S. S. City of Milwaukee, built in 1931, is a former railroad car ferry that crossed Lake Michigan between Muskegon and Milwaukee. It is now a museum on the Manistee waterfront.
It was the last railroad car ferry on Lake Michigan.
The Manistee Pierhead Light dates from 1927.
39 feet tall
The Manistee Iron Works building (1907) is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Recently used for movie production
The village of Bear Lake (pop. 286), northeast of Manistee, is well-known for the yellow cement dinosaur at the Kampville RV Park.
The village of Kaleva (pop. 470) has a four-foot-high grasshopper sculpture, in honor of St. Urho – the mythical Finnish-American Catholic saint.
Made of recycled scrap metal
NEXT: MASON COUNTY
Very cool recycled grasshopper. Beautiful lighthouse too.