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Port Crescent State Park

Local History

It was first called Byrd's Creek for Jeduthan Byrd who built a sawmill here in 1839.  He sold out to the lumbering firm of Smith, Austin & Dwight, and the name was changed to Dwightville in 1854 for firm-member Alfred Dwight.  Firm-member P. C. Austin built a boat dock for himself, enlarged it for the use of others, and put a street light on a pole for the lighthouse.  Then it became known as Austin's Dock, later as Austin Port, and finally as Port Austin.

Rollin C. Smith became its first postmaster on January 19, 1856.  For some time the east side of the town retained the name Dwightville, but eventually as the result of a compromise, the entire village was renamed Port Austin and the township Dwight.  It was the county seat from 1865 to 1875.  Incorporated as a village in 1887.

Informational excerpts from Michigan Place Names, by Walter Romig, L.H.D.

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