Best Web Design in Marlette, MI (2026)

Web Design for Marlette, Michigan

Marlette calls itself the Heart of the Thumb, and it earned the title the hard way: settlers from Ontario cut the timber, farmers worked the ground, townspeople raised $15,000 of their own money in 1881 to pull the railroad in, and mid-century factories turned an old lumber yard into one of Michigan's mobile-home manufacturing centers. The name itself is an accident, taken from a word two failed millwrights carved on a shanty log before giving up and going back to Canada. A town of 1,855 gave the country FDR's naval aide and the only club professional ever to win the Senior PGA.

AppWT serves Marlette and the surrounding Michigan area from Livonia, Michigan.

About Marlette

Also known as. The Heart of the Thumb (used by the city and by Michigan's official travel site, for its position in the middle of the Thumb). Marlatt -- the original name, carved on a log and later respelled.

History. First settled in the 1850s by families from Ontario looking for tall timber and fertile soil; Robert Stinson claimed the first government land in the township in 1854. The name comes from "Marlatt," carved on the end log of a shanty across from the William Rudd farm. Two brothers had come from Ontario intending to build a mill and found a village, failed, and went home; Marlatt was their mother's family name and the spelling drifted to Marlette. Marlette Township was created in 1859 from parts of Sanilac and Buel townships, after an October 1856 petition led by Hugh Dale. The township's first schoolteacher, Mary Ball, arrived in 1858, and the first church was built the same year, shared by Methodist and Baptist congregations. The Port Huron and Northwestern Railroad reached Marlette in January 1881 after residents raised $15,000 toward building the tracks. The Thumb Fire of September 5, 1881 tore through Sanilac and the neighboring counties, killing 282 people; the mail carrier running the Marlette-to-Bad Axe route was reported lost. Recognized as a village within the township in 1865, formally incorporated as a village in 1881, and became a city in 1984. The depot was built in 1890 by contractor E.M. Stewart with a double waiting room, ticket office and baggage room. By 1910 Marlette was a twice-daily passenger and freight stop between Port Huron and Saginaw; passenger service ended in 1936.

Local economy. Agriculture remains the base of the local economy, with Michigan Agricultural Commodities operating a grain elevator in town. Manufactured housing built the modern town: Marlette Coach Co. was started in a converted lumber yard here by Earl Swett, known as the father of manufactured housing standards, with partners Charlie Ballard and Paul Riedle. Marlette also hosted General Coach Works, Guerdon Homes and Active Homes; by the late 1960s Marlette Homes, Inc. was running plants in Michigan, Georgia, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Ontario. The Marlette Homes brand outlived the local plants and is still sold today, now built in Middlebury, Indiana and marketed heavily across the Pacific Northwest. Marlette Regional Hospital at 2770 Main Street is a 25-bed critical access hospital, now part of Aspire Rural Health System, with a Seton Cancer Institute partnership. Marlette Township Airport (FAA identifier 77G) opened in May 1975 with two 3,500-foot runways.

Culture and community. Marlette Country Fair Days is the town's signature celebration, with a grand parade, children's games, a craft show, quilt show, car show, 3-on-3 basketball and softball tournaments, a hospitality tent, live bands, food vendors and a fireworks show. Marlette Community Schools compete as the Red Raiders; Marlette High School opened in 1967. WBGV 92.5 FM gives the town its own country-music voice, one of the few stations licensed to a Thumb community this size. The Marlette Historical Society museum in the restored depot keeps rooms on family and home life, business, medicine, agriculture, the railroad, military service and education, including a Military Room of local veterans' uniforms and photographs. Downtown Main Street runs to small shops, gift stores and cafes where homemade pie and conversation are the draw, with Saginaw, Flint and Detroit each about an hour away.

What makes Marlette distinct. The town is named for a word carved on a log by two brothers whose village never got built -- their mill plan failed, they returned to Ontario, and the carving of their mother's family name outlasted them. John L. McCrea was born in Marlette on May 29, 1891, became President Franklin D. Roosevelt's naval aide, set up the White House Map Room that grew into today's Situation Room, was the first commanding officer of the battleship USS Iowa, retired a vice admiral and lived to 98. Tom Wargo was born in Marlette on September 16, 1942, grew up on a Thumb dairy farm, did not touch a golf club until he was 25, worked as a bartender, ironworker and auto-plant hand, and then won the 1993 PGA Seniors' Championship in a playoff over Bruce Crampton -- the only PGA club professional to take that title since the senior tour began in 1980. Marlette Regional Hospital's own published history credits a "Marlette Amendment" to the federal Hill-Burton Act that opened hospital construction grants to communities that were not county seats, and says its long-term care unit was the first hospital-attached long-term care facility in Michigan. That account comes from the hospital itself and is not independently confirmed here. The Marlette name still rides on manufactured homes sold roughly 2,000 miles away, in Oregon and Washington, long after the local plants closed. The 2020 Census classifies 100 percent of Marlette's population as rural, despite the place being an incorporated city since 1984. Residents put up $15,000 of their own money in 1881 to buy the railroad's attention -- and lost passenger service anyway 55 years later, in 1936.

Marlette Landmarks and Local Life

• Marlette Train Depot Museum - The Marlette Historical Society museum occupies the 1890 train depot at 3325 Main Street, covering family, medicine, military, education, agriculture and business.
• Thomas U. Dawson House - A Michigan State Historic Site at 6560 Ellsworth in Marlette, designated by the state on January 22, 1987.
• Marlette Township Airport - A public use airport a mile southwest of the city with two hard surface runways, one 3,795 feet and one 3,500 feet, plus a fixed base operator, a lounge and a weather briefing station.
• Marlette Regional Hospital - The city is home to Marlette Regional Hospital and the Seton Cancer Institute, a partnership with St. Mary's of Michigan that brings cancer care into the Thumb.
• Germania - Germania, in the surrounding township, was founded in 1873 by immigrants from the Saxony area of Germany who had come to work as miners and instead built a farming community.
• WBGV 92.5 FM - The city's commercial radio station WBGV at 92.5 FM carries a country music format and belongs to Sanilac and GB Broadcasting, the same owner as the Sandusky stations.
• Marlette Community Park and Pool - A 17-acre city park on Chard Street with softball diamonds, tennis and sand volleyball courts, three pavilions, and a pool with splash pad.
• Memory Park - A quarter-acre mini park for passive recreation, with playground equipment, a pavilion, grills, benches and picnic tables.
• Gayle's Trail - A one-mile walking trail on Marlette Community Schools property that is open to the public alongside the school athletic fields.

Marlette at a Glance

U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2023.

• Median household income: About $44,375
• Housing: About 59% of occupied housing units are owner-occupied
• Housing: About 63% of housing units are single-family detached homes

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