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 A History of Northern Michigan and Her People
 by Perry F. Powers, assisted by H. G. Cutler
 Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago; 1912

    [528]

                              OSCODA COUNTY
        Lying between Alcona county on the east and Crawford county on
    the west, Oscoda is in that neutral territory of northeastern Michigan

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------

    [529]

    which has never had the benefit of railway communication to advance
    its interests.  The Au Sable & Northwestern Railway crosses its north-
    western sections, with Comins as its terminus, but since the burning
    of Oscoda and Au Sable at its shore terminus that means of communi-
    cation with a circumscribed area of the country has been crippled.
        The Au Sable river, which crosses Oscoda county from east to west,
    throwing out branches in every direction, carries with it not a few
    natural advantages which may, in time, be developed to the advantage
    of the entire region.  It furnishes an abundance of power which is
    expected to be utilized at Mio, the county seat, in the furtherance of
    various hydro-electric enterprises.
       Oscoda is also by nature, a fine clover, seed and dairy county, and
    farmers are sparsely settled in various districts, largely near the
    county seat or in the vicinity of the Au Sable Railroad to the north-
    east, or in the extreme southwest, as near as possible to the line of
    the Michigan Central.  Much of the well-watered country along the
    streams of the Au Sable river is admirably adapted to dairying and
    sheep raising.
       There are no incorporated villages in Oscoda county.  Mio, the
    seat of justice, was first settled by lumbermen in 1880.  It is on
    the Au Sable river, a little south of the geographical center of the
    county, and fifteen miles southeast of Comins, its nearest railroad
    point on the Au Sable & Northwestern line.  Its main support is the
    trade which naturally centers at the county seat.
        From the census figures which have been submitted for the decades
    ending 1890, 1900 and 1910, it will be seen that the population has
    increased steadily, although not rapidly.

    Civil Divisions                     1910        1900        1890
    Big Creek township.................  432         349         187
    Clinton township...................  207
    Comins township....................  745         681         272
    Elmer township.....................  396         319         122
    Mentor township....................  247         119         607
                                       -----       -----       -----
          Total population.............2,027       1,468       1,188


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