Union City, MI

Union City is a Branch County village whose name tells the geography: the Coldwater and St. Joseph Rivers meet here. The area was first settled in 1833, the original plat was recorded as Goodwinville in 1835, and the village was legally established in 1866 before receiving its state charter in 1869. Riley Dam later backed up the St. Joseph to form Union Lake. Add the annual Meteor Festival and you get a village with two very different kinds of local lore—rivers doing the naming and a sky-rock story doing the celebrating. Union City is southern Michigan with water at the center and a name that is basically a map.