Mikado ( ) is an unincorporated community in Alcona County in the U.S. state of Michigan.
Geography
thumb|left|250px|U.S. Post Office in Mikado
Mikado is a small rural community located about north of Tawas City. The Mikado Township Civic Center, which houses the township government, is located within the center of the community at 2291 South F-41. Mikado is served by Oscoda Area Schools to the south in Oscoda in Iosco County.
Mikado has its own post office that uses the 48745 ZIP Code. The post office is located in the center of the community at 2256 South F-41. The post office serves a large area that includes the majority of Mikado Township, the southwest portion of Harrisville Township, the western portion of Greenbush Township, and the southeast portion of Millen Township. The post office also serves the northwestern portion of Oscoda Township to the south in Iosco County.
Near West Greenbush, the community of Handy was settled to the north along the railway. Handy also received a train depot and was granted the area's first post office under the name Roy on March 23, 1886. Roy and West Greenbush quickly grew as lumbering communities, and Bruce petitioned the state to open a post office in his own community. He suggested the names Bruceville or Bruce Crossing for the name of the post office. The name Bruceville was rejected, and Bruce Crossing was already the name of another community in Michigan. The new post office was granted under the name Mikado by the assistant postmaster general, who had recently seen The Mikado opera and favored the name. This resulted in the usual designation of a Japanese name for a Michigan community.
The community of Roy failed to develop, and the post office was disestablished on June 23, 1898. The train depot also closed around 1900. Mail service to Roy was now handled by the Mikado post office, although Roy soon after became a ghost town. In 1907, Mikado received its own school in the form of a log one-room schoolhouse called the Bailey School.
As a newly incorporated municipality, Mikado was listed in the 1910 census and recorded a population of 100. Soon after, the lumber industry ceased operation in the area, and the train depot closed. The depot would later be demolished, and the railway lines were removed. Due to population loss and lack of further development, Mikado did not record its own individual population statistics in the 1920 census, although it was still listed on the census as an incorporated village within Mikado Township. Mikado was not listed at all in the 1930 census or afterward, as at some point around that time, Mikado surrendered its village status and returned to an unincorporated community.
Recent history
thumb|right|250px|The former Bailey School, originally located in Mikado, was moved and is now part of [[Sturgeon Point State Park]]
Mikado benefited from the original U.S. Route 23 (US 23), which ran directly through Mikado beginning in late-1926 as part of a more inland route running from Standish to Mackinaw City. In 1932, US 23 was realigned to a more scenic route along the shores of Lake Huron, where it would instead pass through the community of Greenbush to the east. The roadway through Mikado was then redesignated as state highway M-171, which served as a bypass route of US 23 from Oscoda to Spruce. In October 1970, the same roadway through Mikado was commissioned as one of the state's first county-designated highways when it was designated as F-41, which follows the same route of the former M-171. While F-41 runs north–south through Mikado, the main east–west roadway through the community was also commissioned as F-30 in 1973. This roadway runs for from Greenbush westward to Glennie.
With the closure of the train depot and removal of the railway lines, Mikado is no longer served by any railroad. The Lake State Railway runs
to the east parallel to US 23 but has no connection to Mikado.
The Bailey School, which opened in 1907, remained in operation until the end of the 1940–41 school year. At that time, students in Mikado were transferred to Oscoda Area Schools. The building remained unused until the township restored it in 1973. In 1998, the entire structure was disassembled and moved to Sturgeon Point State Park in Haynes Township. It now serves as a historic schoolhouse museum and is listed as an Alcona County Historic Site.
In July 2011, the community of Mikado celebrated its 125th anniversary with a Fourth of July parade, which included an old-fashioned baseball game, music, children's activities, and other festivities.