Ironic – Small Northern Michigan Town Named for the Harvesting of Matchwood Burned to the Ground Twice

Welcome to Matchwood Township, Michigan. Population 90. The tiny Upper Peninsula town in southwestern Ontonagon County has a unique, and perhaps fitting, history.

The name of the township comes from the area's main export, wood to make matches. Matchwood, when it was founded in the 1880s was a company town. It was owned by the Diamond Match Company. They used the vast forests of pine to make the tiny matches and sold across the country.

So why isn't Matchwood much of a town today? It it true irony that Matchwood burned in 1893, the victim of a forest fire. The town was rebuilt but incredibly burned again in 1906. The town never regained any major population.

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Looking at the town via Google Maps, the settlement of Matchwood is located to the west of Ewen on M-28. Ewen is the post office that covers Matchwood. Matchwood is at the corner of M-28 and Norwich Road. There appears to be a former business that is now a private residence and there are few other buildings in the area.

There appear to be no businesses, stores or bars in town.

At the time of Matchwood's founding, Diamond Match Company was the largest matchmaker in the world. The company had plants in Ohio, Delaware, California, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Upstate New York and Minnesota.