Best Web Design in Tawas City, MI (2026)

Web Design for Tawas City, Michigan

Tawas City is the county seat of Iosco County, a small Lake Huron resort town wrapped around Tawas Bay on Michigan's Sunrise Side. Founded in 1854 by the Whittemore family as a lumber town and named for Saginaw Chippewa Chief O-ta-was, it anchors a twin-town area with adjacent East Tawas. Today it draws birders, kite-boarders, and winter ice-fishers to a protected bay crowned by the Victorian-era Tawas Point Lighthouse.

AppWT serves Tawas City and the surrounding Michigan area from Livonia, Michigan.

About Tawas City

Also known as. One of 'the Tawases' (paired with neighboring East Tawas), locally called 'old town' versus East Tawas's 'east town'. On Michigan's 'Sunrise Side' (the Lake Huron coast; US-23 is the Sunrise Side Coastal Highway).

History. Tawas City was founded in 1854 by the Whittemore family as the first city on the shores of Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron north of Bay City. Iosco County was created by the Michigan Legislature in 1840 as Kanotin County and renamed Iosco in 1843; 'Iosco' was a pseudo-Native American name coined by geographer-ethnologist Henry Rowe Schoolcraft. The first post office opened January 6, 1856, with James O. Whittemore as postmaster, and the town was designated county seat. The name comes from Chief O-ta-was of the Saginaw band of Chippewa, who camped on the bay; early mapmakers added a 't' and later dropped an 's.' The popular 'Ottawas' derivation is a documented myth. Tawas City incorporated as a village in 1885 and as a city in 1895; East Tawas grew up about a mile east after Smith, Van Valkenburg and Company built a competing mill roughly eight years after the Whittemores' mill.

Local economy. The founding economy was the lumber industry, powered by surrounding forest lands, Lake Huron shipping, and abundant wildlife. Today the town runs on its role as county seat plus a resort-and-tourism economy built on Tawas Bay, beaches, birding, and fishing. Tawas Bay serves as a harbor of refuge used by large freighters to shelter from severe Lake Huron storms. US-23, the Sunrise Side Coastal Highway, is the main tourism-and-commerce corridor, and M-55 reaches its eastern terminus at US-23 in Tawas City.

Culture and community. Perchville USA, the area's most-attended event, is an annual winter ice-fishing festival that began in 1950 (its 76th edition ran February 5-8, 2026) with a polar bear swim, a chili cook-off, an ice-fishing tournament on the bay, and fireworks. Blues by the Bay, an all-volunteer blues festival organized in 2002, is held at Harbor Park in East Tawas. The Tawas Bay Waterfront Fine Arts Festival at Shoreline Park in Tawas City features painters, potters, sculptors, jewelers, photographers, food, and live music. Other seasonal events include the Breeze on the Bay Kite Festival, SummerFest, the Uncork'd & Untap'd Wine Festival, and spring bird-migration gatherings. Spring smelt runs along the bay were long part of the local calendar.

What makes Tawas City distinct. The town is named after a Chippewa chief, and both Wikipedia and the city's own history explicitly debunk the common belief that 'Tawas' comes from 'Ottawas.' Through a Michigan DNR program, volunteers can live as Victorian-era light keepers at Tawas Point Lighthouse for a roughly two-week stay for about $250 per person. Perchville began as a scheme to build a temporary town of colorful fishing shanties on the frozen bay to lure winter tourists and boost off-season business. Tawas Bay is a designated harbor of refuge where large freighters shelter from Lake Huron storms.

Tawas City Landmarks and Local Life

• Tawas Point Lighthouse - built in 1876, is the sole true Victorian-era-style light station on the Great Lakes; it replaced an 1853 light that ended up more than a mile inland as the sand spit grew
• Tawas Point State Park covers about 183 acres on the sand spit forming Tawas Bay and is an Important Bird Area described as the most important 'migrant trap' in the Saginaw Bay area - and a top kite-boarding destination
• The Iosco County Historical Museum preserves regional history.
• Shoreline Park sits on the Tawas City bayfront.

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