Blaine Township, Michigan
| Blaine Township, Michigan | |
|---|---|
| Township | |
 Blaine Township
|
|
| Coordinates: 44°33′45″N 86°11′37″W / 44.56250°N 86.19361°WCoordinates: 44°33′45″N 86°11′37″W / 44.56250°N 86.19361°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Michigan |
| County | Benzie |
| Area | |
| • Total | 21.0 sq mi (54.5 km2) |
| • Land | 19.4 sq mi (50.3 km2) |
| • Water | 1.6 sq mi (4.2 km2) |
| Elevation | 653 ft (199 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 551 |
| • Density | 28/sq mi (10.9/km2) |
| Time zone | Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) |
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
| FIPS code | 26-08840 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1625944 |
Blaine Township is a civil township of Benzie County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the township population was 551. It is located in the southwest portion of the county. There are no significant population centers in the township; the nearest towns are Arcadia to the south, Benzonia to the northeast, and Elberta to the northwest. M-22 is the township's main thoroughfare.
Blaine Township was organized from part of what had been Gilmore Township in 1876.
For a very brief period in the early 1890s, a town called Watervale 44°33′13″N 86°12′52″W / 44.55361°N 86.21444°W was inhabited in the township along Lower Herring Lake. The town participated in the sawmill boom that brought a period of prosperity to northern Michigan. Abandoned in 1894, the town was made into a summer resort in 1917. Today the resort is known as the Inn at Watervale and the Watervale Historic District. Watervale maintains its nineteenth-century atmosphere and has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of 21.0 square miles (54.5 km2), of which 19.4 square miles (50.3 km2) is land and 1.6 square miles (4.2 km2), or 7.70%, is water. It is bordered on the north by Gilmore Township, on the east by Joyfield Township, on the south by Arcadia and Pleasanton townships in Manistee County, and on the west by Lake Michigan. Besides Lake Michigan, the township's most distinguishing physical features are Lower and Upper Herring Lakes, connected and fed by Herring Creek, and bluffs at Green Point Dunes (north of the lakes) and Arcadia Dunes.
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