Sanilac County, Michigan

Sanilac County, Michigan

Encyclopedia

Tutorials

Encyclopedia

Dictionary

Directory

Email this to a friend Sanilac_County,_Michigan

Sanilac County, Michigan

Sanilac County is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the population was 44,547 with a projection of 44,448 in 2006. The county seat is Sandusky. The county, which is part of the Thumb region, was created on September 10, 1822 and was fully organized on December 31, 1849.

Geography

Adjacent counties
Major highways

History
Demographics
Media
Government

Sanilac County elected officials

Cities, villages, and townships
Notes
Further reading
External links

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,590 square miles (4,119 km²), of which, 964 square miles (2,496 km²) of it is land and 626 square miles (1,622 km²) of it (39.39%) is water. As mentioned above, Sanilac County is one of five counties that forms the Thumb area. Sanilac County enjoys seasonable tourisum in towns such as Lexington, Port Sanilac, and Carsonville. Sanilac County is econocomically attached to St. Clair County and Huron County and has very fertile, flat land.
It is considered to be part of the Thumb of Michigan, which in turn is a subregion of the Flint/Tri-Cities.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Saginaw is the controlling regional body for the Catholic Church.^[1]

Adjacent counties

Huron County (north)
Tuscola County (west)
St. Clair County (south)
Lapeer County (southwest)
Huron County, Ontario, Canada (east)

Major highways

History

Sanilac County was probably named for a Wyandotte/Huron Chief named Sanilac.^[2] See List of Michigan county name etymologies.

In the middle 1800's, the area now called Port Sanilac was called Bark Shanty. It was named for a lone shanty made of bark, which was used to make split pine shingles. The name Sanilac, and Chief Sannilac, may be connected with the word shanty and perhaps the phrase shanty by the lake, which would make the name Sanilac both Wyandotte and French or just French. Lake in French is "lac". The Iroquis name Canada means town. The nearest English sounding equivalent to it is shanty town. The word shanty comes from the French word "chantier" often meaning a lumber camp. The Huron, or Wyandotte, were an Iroquios people. In the Iroquois language Onondaga, "oschwoencara" means shingle. The word has a contrapart in the Latin word "scandula", which means split wood or shingle. The root is to saw or to split. To split in Latin is "scindo" The Thumb of Michigan, which includes Sanilac County, was once known as the lumbering capital of the world. It seems that the name Sanilac is connected with splitting pine wood or making shingles, which are used in making shanties.

The Thumb of Michigan was in the 1600's called Skenchioe and later Skenchiotuate, which seems to mean flat land or plain. Skenchio seems to be broken into the phrase "flat shingle, planed board, or planck like land". The Onondaga word "gahuntowano" means flatland. A plain is called "uschwentschios". The Thumb of Michigan is a tableland--with a flat top that is shaped like a shingle or split piece of wood.

The Thumb of Michigan was at one time the lumber capital of the world base on splitting white pine wood. To the Algonquin, Iroquois, and European the pine tree was the tree of the shingle or split wood. The Chippewa/Ottawa word "jingwak" or "zhngwak" meant the splitting wood the pine wood.

Demographics

Downtown Lexington, Michigan in the Thumb.

As of the census of 2000, there were 44,547 people, 16,871 households, and 12,163 families residing in the county. The population density was 46 people per square mile (18/km²). There were 21,314 housing units at an average density of 22 per square mile (9/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 96.90% White, 0.28% Black or African American, 0.36% Native American, 0.26% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 1.09% from other races, and 1.11% from two or more races. 2.78% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 28.9% were of German, 11.7% English, 10.3% American, 10.2% Polish and 9.0% Irish ancestry according to Census 2000. 95.7% spoke English, 1.6% Spanish and 1.2% German as their first language.

There were 16,871 households out of which 32.70% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.80% were married couples living together, 8.60% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.90% were non-families. 24.30% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.60% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.60 and the average family size was 3.08.

In the county the population was spread out with 26.90% under the age of 18, 7.60% from 18 to 24, 27.00% from 25 to 44, 23.00% from 45 to 64, and 15.40% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 98.50 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.80 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $36,870, and the median income for a family was $42,306. Males had a median income of $32,101 versus $21,376 for females. The per capita income for the county was $17,089. About 7.60% of families and 10.40% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.10% of those under age 18 and 9.30% of those age 65 or over.

Media

Sanilac/GB Broadcasting operates three radio stations in Sanilac County. The county is served weekly by the Sanilac County News of Sandusky and other small newspapers. Also daily deliveries of the Port Huron Times Herald are available in Sanilac County.

Government

The county government operates the jail, maintains rural roads, operates the major local courts, keeps files of deeds and mortgages, maintains vital records, administers public health regulations, and participates with the state in the provision of welfare and other social services. The county board of commissioners controls the budget but has only limited authority to make laws or ordinances. In Michigan, most local government functions — police and fire, building and zoning, tax assessment, street maintenance, etc. — are the responsibility of individual cities and townships.