Michigan’s Smallest City Is Only Home to 288 Residents

Living in Michigan means if you aren't from Grand Rapids or Detroit than you think your hometown is a small city. For a large majority of people in Michigan, this is true as there are dozens of small towns throughout the state. There are some cities like Flint, Saginaw, Muskegon, and Kalamazoo that feel smaller than they actually are.

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Growing up in Kalamazoo, I feel like it's a small city and it feels like everybody knows each other. Also, I feel like the city has gotten boring recently because there isn't anything to provide entertainment. Also, traveling can really open your eyes to what it's like in other places, whether it be a bigger or smaller city.

Driving through the country you can come across several different small towns and most of them have a very distinct feel, almost like everybody is looking at you because they don't know you, but everybody knows everybody. There are tons of small tons in Michigan, and they are often the tightest knit communities in the state.

What City Do You Think Is The Smallest In Michigan?

It's funny that I could think Kalamazoo is a small city in Michigan when the population is almost 100,000 people. Meanwhile, there are dozens of small towns whose population numbers don't even reach 4 figures. Do you have guesses on which city is the smallest in Michigan? Have you ever visited Lake Angelus, Michigan? The small town has been around since the early 20th century.

lakeangelus.org says:

The City of Lake Angelus surrounds a lake of the same name and was founded by a group of men including Elmer E. Gallogly, Charles Staff, Fenn J. Holden, Charles Roehm, Neil C. McMath and Hiram L. Walton. In the 1920’s, for what was believed to be a religious reason, Mrs. Sollace B. Collidge was chiefly instrumental in having the name changed from Three Mile Lake. In May 1930, it had been incorporated into a village until January 1, 1984 when Lake Angelus became a city.

Lake Angelus has a unique environment and human history. It is not by accident that the lake and the land immediately surrounding it exists today as the City of Lake Angelus. The early 1900s brought the division of large parcels of agricultural land and the growth of a small community of people from Detroit whose business lives were often related to the automobile which brought them to Three Mile Lake, later known as Lake Angelus. By the 1920s, residents had agreed on restrictions to govern themselves and the use of lands and waters of Lake Angelus; but early in its history, the lake was in jeopardy of being annexed by neighboring governmental units. The most significant event in the history and future of Lake Angelus occurred in 1929. A special Act of the State Legislature authorized “homerule” for Lake Angelus and it was incorporated as a Village on May 17, 1930. Fifty-four years later, in 1984, the residents changed their form of government from a Village to a City.

The city is now home to just 288 people and is the smallest town in the entire state of Michigan. Here is a list of the smallest cities in ever state, including Lake Angelus in Michigan: