Port Sanilac, MI

Port Sanilac began as Bark Shanty Point, named for a bark-covered shanty built by lumbermen who came to peel hemlock bark for leather tanning. The post office opened in 1854, the settlement was renamed Port Sanilac in 1857, and docks soon connected the village with Lake Huron shipping and passenger travel. A school and Methodist congregation came early, while the Port Sanilac Lighthouse, authorized in 1884 and first lit in 1886, gave the harbor a lasting landmark.

Today Port Sanilac is a Lake Huron village with marinas, beaches, boating, fishing, diving, camping, and a village parks department working from the Bark Shanty Community Center. Carsonville-Port Sanilac Schools serve the area, and the old elementary school building continues as a community center after the school closed. The harbor, lighthouse, lake roads, and nearby farms give the village its shape through changing seasons. Sanilac County towns supply larger errands and services, but Port Sanilac keeps its own waterfront calendar, local meetings, and long connection to the water.