Best Web Design in Ypsilanti Township, MI (2026)

Web Design for Ypsilanti Township, Michigan

Ypsilanti Charter Township is a charter township of Washtenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan, with 55,670 residents at the 2020 census. It covers 31.72 square miles, of which 29.93 square miles is land and 1.79 square miles, 5.64 percent, is water, a notably high water share driven by Ford Lake. The city of Ypsilanti is mostly surrounded by the township, but the two are administered autonomously, so a single name covers two separate governments.

AppWT works with Ypsilanti Township businesses from Livonia, a short drive away.

About Ypsilanti Township

Also known as. No nickname is published for the township. Willow Run, the name of a stream inside it, became the widely used shorthand for the wartime bomber plant and the airport.

History. Ypsilanti Township was created in 1827, when the area was still administratively part of Wayne County; Washtenaw County itself was not created within the Michigan Territory until 1829. The earliest community was Woodgruff's Grove, settled in 1823 by the Ohio native Benjamin Woodruff, which held a post office from 9 May 1825 to 28 January 1828 and was absorbed into the village of Ypsilanti when that incorporated in 1832. The township's defining twentieth-century episode is Willow Run: in 1943 the federal government built a bomber plant there, operated by Henry Ford during the Second World War, and a settlement called Willow Village was put up to house the workers and their families. Willow Village had its own post office until the bomber plant closed on 30 June 1945.

Local economy. The cargo airline Kalitta Air is headquartered at Willow Run Airport inside the township. Willow Run Airport itself occupies the site of the wartime bomber plant. Interstate 94 runs east to west through the township and forms part of the boundary with the city, US 12 as Michigan Avenue enters at the northeast corner and runs concurrent with I-94 through most of the township, and M-17 as Washtenaw Avenue begins at US 12 and passes in and out of the city.

Culture and community. Two public school districts split the township. The section roughly south of Ford Lake is served by Lincoln Consolidated School District, based in Augusta Charter Township, and the northern portion, together with the autonomous city, by Ypsilanti Community Schools. Willow Run Community Schools served parts of the township until it was consolidated into Ypsilanti Community Schools in 2013. Ypsilanti Community High School stands within the township, and Global Educational Excellence, based in Ann Arbor, runs the Global Tech Academy for prekindergarten through grade five.

Washtenaw County's second-largest community, spread along Ford Lake south of Ypsilanti, forever tied to Willow Run's wartime 'Arsenal of Democracy' story

Notable. Site of Willow Run, the WWII plant that built a B-24 bomber roughly every hour and gave America Rosie the Riveter.

Ypsilanti Township Landmarks and Local Life

• Willow Run bomber plant site - Albert Kahn-designed Ford plant built in 1941 that produced a B-24 Liberator roughly every hour at its April 1944 peak -- 453 planes in 468 hours
• Rosie the Riveter heritage - Willow Run employed Rose Will Monroe, the riveter most identified with the wartime Rosie character
• Ford Lake - Huron River impoundment forming the township's southern waterfront
• Ford Lake parks - Township waterfront parks along the Huron River impoundment
• Willow Run heritage sites - Preserved bomber-plant section saved in 2014 for the aviation museum

Ypsilanti Township at a Glance

U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2023.

• Median household income: $68,773
• Adults with a bachelor degree or higher: 36.8%
• Housing: 57.5% of occupied housing units are owner-occupied
• Housing: 58.8% of housing units are single-family detached homes