Best Web Design in Oscoda Charter Township, MI (2026)

Web Design for Oscoda Charter Township, Michigan

Oscoda Charter Township sits where the Au Sable River empties into Lake Huron in Iosco County and is Michigan's officially designated birthplace of the Paul Bunyan legend, first put in print by James MacGillivray in 1906. A booming white-pine lumber town wiped out by a catastrophic 1911 fire, it later hosted Cold War B-52 bombers at Wurtsmith Air Force Base. Today it lives on tourism, the AuSable River Canoe Marathon finish line, and the scenic Huron National Forest.

AppWT serves Oscoda Charter Township and the surrounding Michigan area from Livonia, Michigan.

About Oscoda Charter Township

Also known as. Birthplace of Paul Bunyan. Home of the AuSable River Canoe Marathon finish.

History. The name Oscoda was coined by geographer Henry Rowe Schoolcraft from the Ojibwe words "ossin" (stone) and "muskoda" (prairie), meaning "pebbly prairie"; the county name Iosco, chosen in 1843, means "water of light." Iosco County was created in 1857 with fewer than 200 residents; Oscoda's first post office opened in July 1875. White-pine lumbering dominated for roughly 50 years until a catastrophic 1911 forest fire destroyed both Oscoda and its twin town Au Sable, after which the area turned to gypsum quarrying and farming. James MacGillivray's poem/story "The Round River Drive," rooted in tales printed in the Oscoda Press in 1906, helped launch the Paul Bunyan legend in print; the legend drew partly on French-Canadian lumberjack Fabian Fournier. Michigan officially designated Oscoda the birthplace of Paul Bunyan in 2006. Wurtsmith Air Force Base began in 1923 as Loud-Reames Aviation Field, was renamed Camp Skeel in 1924 for World War I pilot Captain Burt E. Skeel, and served as a Strategic Air Command B-52 bomber base during the Cold War before closing in 1993. After the base closed, the Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport Authority took over the airfield; the redeveloped former base now hosts more than 40 businesses and agencies, over 1,300 jobs, and roughly 700 privately owned homes.

Local economy. Tourism is now the primary industry, replacing the historical timber economy. Historically driven by white-pine lumbering, then gypsum quarrying and farming after the 1911 fire, and later Wurtsmith Air Force Base. The former base and Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport operate as an industrial and aviation park. At about 131 square miles, Oscoda is the largest municipality by area in Iosco County.

Culture and community. Paul Bunyan Days celebrates the township's claim as the legend's literary birthplace. The Weyerhaeuser AuSable River Canoe Marathon, a 120-mile race from Grayling that finishes in Oscoda on the last full weekend in July, is part of canoe racing's Triple Crown. A Paul Bunyan statue standing 13 feet 4 inches tall greets visitors at Furtaw Field just north of downtown on U.S. 23.

What makes Oscoda Charter Township distinct. The Au Sable River's name comes from French for "River of Sand." The town was essentially rebuilt after the 1911 fire that leveled both Oscoda and Au Sable. Firefighting-foam chemicals from the former Air Force base left a well-documented PFAS contamination site now under state and federal cleanup.

Oscoda Charter Township Landmarks and Local Life

• Lumberman's Monument - a bronze sculpture roughly 14 feet tall depicting a timber cruiser, a sawyer, and a river rat, set on an Au Sable River overlook in the Huron National Forest
• The River Road National Scenic Byway - about 23.5 miles along M-65 and River Road paralleling the Au Sable River and ending in Oscoda
• The mouth of the Au Sable River and the Lake Huron shoreline.
• Van Etten Lake and the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base grounds.