Fairbanks Township is a civil township of Delta County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the township population was 297, up from 281 at the 2010 census.
Communities
- Fayette is an unincorporated community on the eastern shore of the Big Bay de Noc which opens into Green Bay on Lake Michigan at . It is at the southern terminus of M-183 about eight miles south of Garden within Fayette Historic State Park. It was created around an iron smelter in 1867.
- Fairport is an unincorporated community at the southern end of the Garden Peninsula at . It is approximately six miles south of Fayette on Delta County Road 483, the locally maintained extension of M-183. It was founded in 1886 by fishermen who had relocated from St. Martin Island.
History
In 1867, the Jackson Iron Company had Fayette Brown build a charcoal iron smelter at Fayette, which grew up around the smelter and named after Brown. A Fayette post office opened on September 13, 1870 with Marvin H. Brown as postmaster. In 1891, the smelter was dismantled.
Fairport was founded in 1886 by fishermen who had relocated from St. Martin Island. The community was a commercial fishing port.
Fayette continued on as a small resort community until the mid-1950s, and then became a state park in 1959.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of , of which is land and (84.23%) is water. The northern Potawatomi Islands are in Fairbanks Township, while the southern Potawatomi Islands are in the town of Washington in Door County, Wisconsin. Part of St. Martin Island is owned by the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians as a Tribal Trust Land.
Climate
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Demographics
As of the census