Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Bellaire, MI

Bellaire is a village and the county seat of Antrim County in northwestern Michigan's Lower Peninsula, split between Forest Home and Kearney townships along the Intermediate River.

Bellaire's post office opened under the name Keno on June 20, 1879, and was renamed Bellaire on May 26, 1880.

Bellaire won the Antrim County seat from Elk Rapids in 1880, although the transfer was fought over in court for years afterward; the historic Antrim County Courthouse still stands in the village.

Bellaire was incorporated as a village in 1891, the same year the Chicago & West Michigan Railroad built a depot there; a second railroad, the East Jordan & Southern, arrived in 1901.

For decades Bellaire was a major railroad center for Antrim County, attracting industries such as a wooden bowl factory that made wooden utensils, until the rail lines were abandoned in 1962 and 1982.

The 2020 census counted 1,053 people in Bellaire, and the village had 456 households at the 2010 census, when the average household size was 2.29 people.

Bellaire's population peaked at 1,164 in the 2000 census, and it had already topped 1,100 residents back in 1900 during its railroad and lumber heyday.

Bellaire is home to Short's Brewing Company, one of Michigan's best-known craft breweries.

The Antrim Review, the county's newspaper of record, is headquartered in Bellaire.

State highway M-88 runs through the village, linking it to Central Lake about 8 miles north and Mancelona about 10 miles southeast.