Fort Gratiot Township ( ) is a charter township of St. Clair County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 11,242 at the 2020 Census. It is named for Fort Gratiot, an American fort located there off and on between 1814 and 1879.
History
Fort Gratiot Township was established in 1867. It is named for General Charles Gratiot, the engineer who laid out the fort.
Communities
- Gardendale is an unincorporated community near the center of the township at . It was a station on the Pere Marquette Railway. A post office operated from March 1891 until March 1906.
- Keewahdin or Keewahdin Beach was a resort developed in 1914 by the Keewahdin Park Association on Lake Huron north of Port Huron. The name was likely derived from Kewadin, a famous Ojibwe leader.
- The city of Port Huron is adjacent to the southeast.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of , of which is land and (0.19%) is water.
Fort Gratiot is on the southwestern shore of Lake Huron and is considered to be part of the Thumb of Michigan, which in turn is a subregion of the Flint/Tri-Cities. Fort Gratiot is a major center of trade for the Blue Water Area, a subregion of the Thumb. The Birchwood Mall and many big box stores are located in Fort Gratiot.
Demographics
As of the census