Mass City, MI

Mass City is an unincorporated community in Ontonagon County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The 2020 census counted 148 residents. Mass City was first settled in 1848 by Noel Johnson, an escaped slave from Missouri who discovered copper in the area; Johnson later sold the copper deposits to the Mass Mining Company. Mass City was formally organized in 1855 and named for the mass copper mined in the area. The short version is that Mass City carries an earlier story into the places people know and use now. That is the local read on Mass City: its past remains attached to the places people use now. The small town is located within Greenland Township, Ontonagon County, in the foothills of the Porcupine Mountains. Mass City is home to an abundance of natural forestry and wildlife able to be explored via the Courtney Lake/Old Grade Ski Trail which runs through parts of the Ottawa National Forest.