Otsego County ( ), formerly known as Okkuddo County, is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 25,091. The county seat is Gaylord. The county was founded in 1840 and organized in 1875.
Etymology
Otsego may be a Native American name meaning "place of the rock". However, an alternative theory is that it derives from a lake and a county in New York state, which are said to bear the name derived from a Mohawk Iroquoian word meaning either "clear water" or "meeting place." It may be a neologism coined by Henry Schoolcraft, who was a borrower of words and pieces of words from many languages (including Arabic, Greek, Latin, and various American Indian languages). See List of Michigan county name etymologies.
History
The county was created in 1840 as Okkuddo County (meaning "sickly water," although the reason for using a name with such a negative meaning is lost). The name was changed to Otsego in 1843. It was organized in 1875. On May 20, 2022, an EF3 tornado stuck the county seat of Gaylord killing 2 and injuring 44 while causing major damage to the downtown business district and severely damaging a mobile home park.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (2.1%) is water. It is the fifth-smallest county by total area in Michigan. Although it is located on Michigan's Lower Peninsula, Otsego County is considered to be part of Northern Michigan.
Otsego County has more than 370 lakes, mostly in the southern part of the county. Otsego Lake is the county's largest and has a surface area of . Other large lakes in the southern part of the county include Big Lake, Big Bear Lake, Buhl Lake, Crapo Lake, Dixon Lake, Douglas Lake, Guthrie Lake, Heart Lake, Lake Tecon, Manuka Lake, Opal Lake, Pencil Lake, and Turtle Lake. The larger lakes in the northern part of the county are Five Lakes, Hardwood Lake, Lake Twenty Seven, and Pickerel Lake. Many of these are so-called 'kettle lakes,' formed by the melting of blocks of glacial ice, left as the glacier retreated, which created a depression in the soil.
Glaciers shaped the area, creating a unique regional ecosystem. A large portion of the area is the Grayling outwash plain, a broad outwash plain including sandy ice-disintegration ridges; jack pine barrens, some white pine-red pine forest, and northern hardwood forest. Large lakes were created by glacial action.
Headwaters of the Au Sable, Black, Manistee, Pigeon, and Sturgeon Rivers are in Otsego County. The Au Sable River watershed is the county's largest watershed.
Adjacent counties
Cheboygan County - north
Montmorency County - east
Oscoda County - southeast
Crawford County - south
Kalkaska County - southwest
Antrim County - west
Charlevoix County - northwest
Transportation
State-maintained highways
is a north–south freeway the runs through central Otsego County, bypassing Gaylord to the west. The route serves as Michigan's major north–south thoroughfare, cities such as Detroit, Flint, and Saginaw with Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. is a loop route serving businesses and tourists in the city of Gaylord. It shares a short concurrency with M-32. is an east–west route, running across much of the width of the northern Lower Peninsula. Including Gaylord, the highway serves communities such as East Jordan, Elmira, Johannesburg, Atlanta, Hillman, and Alpena. is a former highway that was removed from Otsego County in 1961. The route has since been supplanted by I-75, and is today referred to as "Old 27".
County-designated highways
is an east–west route that connects the community of Otsego Lake to US Highway 131 (US 131) at Mancelona. is an east–west route serving as a cutoff between M-32 near Gaylord and US 131 at Alba. is an east–west route in northwest Otsego County, connecting Boyne Falls and eastern Charlevoix County to Old US 27 and Vanderbilt. is a north–south route running along the Otsego–Montmorency county line. is an east–west route serving southeastern Otsego County and the Montmorency County community of Lewiston. serves as a southern bypass of Gaylord, running parallel to M-32. parallels M-32 to the north, east of Gaylord. is a north–south route that serves southern Otsego County, and extends south into Crawford, Roscommon, and Gladwin counties.
Airport
Gaylord Regional Airport – on SW edge of Gaylord, owned and operated by Otsego County, is a General Utility Airport. It is listed as a tier one airport in all categories of the Michigan Airport System Plan.