Hart, MI

Hart is Oceana County’s seat, a city founded in 1856 and named for its position near the county’s center. The city’s north end is the starting point of the William Field Memorial Hart–Montague Trail State Park, a paved 22-mile rail trail running south to Montague with picnic areas and overlooks. That old rail corridor gives Hart an easy-to-read local map: county offices and the downtown grid sit at one end, and the trail leaves town toward the farm country of Oceana County. Hart is politically independent from Hart Township, even though the two share the same name and landscape. The city’s story comes through three linked facts—the courthouse role, the pioneer-era origin, and the rail line that now carries trail users through western Michigan.