Advance, MI

Advance is a Charlevoix County CDP along Lake Charlevoix in Eveline Township, with a classic lake-and-rail rise-and-fall story. The community was settled along Pine Lake, the earlier name for Lake Charlevoix, and its post office opened in 1870. The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad added a depot in 1877, but when the depot closed, Advance shrank and lost the traffic that had made it a place on the line. It is now a census-defined community served by schools in Boyne City and, for part of the area, East Jordan. Advance is northern Michigan in a narrow frame: lake shore, old depot site, and township roads.