Grawn, MI

Grawn is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Grand Traverse County, inside Blair Township on the border with Green Lake Township. The 2020 census counted 816 residents. Traverse City Area Public Schools serve the community, with Blair Elementary close to the roads and homes that spread across the township line. Grawn sits in northern Michigan’s farm and forest country, and the old rail route remains part of its story.

The first settlement was called Blackwood after James B. Blackwood, who arrived in the 1870s. The Chicago and West Michigan Railway came through in 1890, and the community became Grawn Station, named for educator Charles T. Grawn. The name was shortened to Grawn the same year, when the post office opened. Potatoes were the main crop by 1905. A 1995 fire at Carl’s Tire Retreading burned for 20 days and led to evacuations; state records still track the site’s effect on nearby wells and Blair Elementary’s water supply. Grawn is a rail-named community with a farm edge and an environmental chapter still being managed.