Rapid City, MI

Rapid City is an unincorporated Kalkaska County community and census-designated place on the Rapid River, immediately beside Torch Lake. Its first post office opened as Van Buren in 1892, changed to Vanburen in 1895, and became Rapid City in 1898, taking the name of the river that runs through it. The boundaries are statistical, not municipal, so the place is read through the river, the Torch Lake shore, Clearwater Township roads, and the post office at the center. Rapid City is a northern Michigan crossroads whose name keeps following the water.