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Michigan Counties

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Michigan Counties

The boundaries of the 83 Counties in Michigan have not changed substantially since 1897.

Van Buren County, Michigan

Van Buren County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Paw Paw
Year Organized: 1829
Square Miles: 611

Court House:

219 Paw Paw Street
County Courthouse
Paw Paw, MI 49079-0000

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Van Buren County named for United States Secretary of State Martin Van Buren (later eighth President of the United States), and is a Cabinet county.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Van Buren County named for United States Secretary of State Martin Van Buren (later eighth President of the United States), is a Cabinet county.

Set Off: 1829, attached to Cass County

Organized: 1837

Much of the county is farmland dotted with small towns. Areas near Kalamazoo County are becoming suburbanized. Many of the inland lakes are ringed with homes, either by people living year-round or cottagers, generally people who live the rest of the time in Chicago. Tourism is a major industry in the areas near Lake Michigan.

Neighboring Counties:

Allegan County - northeast
Kalamazoo County - east
St. Joseph County - southeast
Cass County - south
Berrien County - southwest

Cities and Towns:

- Almena	township
- Antwerp	township
- Arlington	township
- Bangor	city	Incorporated Area
- Bloomingdale	village	Incorporated Area
- Breedsville	village	Incorporated Area
- Columbia	township
- Covert	township
- Decatur	village	Incorporated Area
- Geneva	township
- Gobles	city	Incorporated Area
- Hartford	city	Incorporated Area
- Keeler	township
- Lawrence	village	Incorporated Area
- Lawton	village	Incorporated Area
- Mattawan	village	Incorporated Area
- Paw Paw (County Seat)	village	Incorporated Area
- Pine Grove	township
- Porter	township
- South Haven	city	Incorporated Area
- South Haven charter	township
- Waverly	township

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."