Read time: 5 min.

Missaukee County is nestled among dense forests and sparkling lakes in the heart of the Michigan wilderness. The community’s a testament to no-nonsense resiliency and self-sufficiency, so it’s no surprise that the modern courthouse in downtown Lake City is one of the state’s least ostentatious. Put simply, it has a job to do.

Expected population growth convinced state officials to separate Missaukee County from nearby Mackinac in 1840¹. Over the next three decades, the area became part of Grand Traverse, Manistee, and Wexford Counties. In 1871, Missaukee County was finally organized independently².

The county’s first courthouse was a temporary structure built in the village of Falmouth in 1871. Two years later, officials selected the community of Reeder as the county seat by a one-vote margin³! A two-story frame courthouse was built in 1873r⁴, and Reeder was renamed Lake City in 1877. A $10,000 courthouse more suitable for a fledgling county was erected six years later⁵.

A two-story frame structure, Missaukee County’s first substantial courthouse was a Greek Revival building with a front tower and peaked roof that paid tribute to Second Empire styles popular at the time. A brick vault supplanted the tower sometime before 1944⁶, when the courthouse was destroyed by an inferno believed to have been sparked by faulty wiring. The loss was estimated at $35,000⁷.

With nowhere to go, officials relocated to a two-story brick home at 325 South Canal Street near the south edge of downtown⁸. I’ve taken camping trips to Missaukee County for thirty years, and I’ve passed that house dozens of times on my way home. Until today, I never knew it once served as the courthouse!

Although the house was only intended to be a temporary home for the courts, it took officials nine years to grant John A. Saul of Traverse City the contract to build a replacement⁹. The $160,000 courthouse -Missaukee County’s fifth, if you’ve been keeping track- was completed in 1955.

The Lansing State Journal celebrated it as “one of Michigan’s most attractive courthouse buildings” in 1955¹⁰. A two-story brick and concrete structure, the building housed all of Missaukee County’s offices except the sheriff’s department. It even served as the county library! The structure may seem spartan compared to courthouses Hoosiers and Buckeyes are used to, but the Missaukee County Courthouse is far from the worst I’ve seen in Michigan. Remember- it had a job to do.

The courthouse faces west on landscaped grounds just east of M-55 and M-66, the main concurrent route through downtown Lake City. The north and south walls of the primary structure are covered with white stucco punctuated by vertical windows. Historically, the main entrance to the courthouse was through a projecting concrete portico.

A new Missaukee County Jail was added to the north side of the courthouse four years after it opened. In 1981, a second wing was built to the south, which gave the building a T-shaped profile. A final addition that expanded the jail and sheriff’s office to the northeast was completed in 2002¹¹.

Despite my many visits to Lake City, I’ve never had reason to go inside the Missaukee County Courthouse. In fact, I’d never even seen it until I visited in 2018- seems I’d rather be shooting, hiking, or simply hanging out by the campfire. Nevertheless, the hardy structure has adapted to its constituents increasing needs over the past sixty years. Today, it still serves as a reflection of their rugged self-reliance.

TL;DR
Missaukee County (pop. 15,130, 67/83)
Lake City (pop. 835)
10/83 photographed
Built: 1955
Cost: $160,000 ($1.8 million today)
Architect: Gordon Cornwall
Style: Modern
Courthouse Square: Shelbyville Square
Height: 2 stories
Current Use: County offices and courts
Photographed: 4/29/2018

Sources Cited
1 Dawson, G. (1840). Acts of the Legislature of the State of Michigan Passed at the Annual Session of 1840. Detroit. book.
2 Powers, P.F. (1912). A History of Northern Michigan and its People, Volume 1. Lewis Publishing Company [Alcona County]. Book.
3 Romig, W. (1986). Michigan Place Names: The History of the Found and the Naming of More Than Five Thousand Past and Present Michigan Communities. Wayne State University Press [Detroit]. book.
4 Vincent, K. (2018). Courthouse History. Web. Retrieved 10/15/2023.
5 (See footnote 2).
6 (See footnote 4).
7 Missaukee County Courthouse Burns; Loss Totals $35,000 (1944, February 18). The Escanaba Daily Press. p. 1.
8 Deacon, J. (n.d.). Missaukee County. American Courthouses: a photo archive by John Deacon. Web. Retrieved 10/15/2023.
9 Gets Courthouse Bid (1953, October 10). The Holland Evening Sentinel. p. 1.
10 Missaukee Opens New Courthouse (1955, March 10). The Lansing State Journal. p. 40.
11 (See footnote 8).