Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Howard City, MI

Howard City is a village in Montcalm County, within Reynolds Township in the northwestern part of the county.

Howard City was platted in 1868 by E. W. Muenscher on land owned by Benjamin Ensley, and it was named for William A. Howard, a Detroit railroad attorney.

The railroad depot at Howard City opened in 1869 and its post office followed on January 12, 1870; the settlement incorporated as a village in 1873.

For four years the village's mail was addressed to just "Howard" — the post office name was shortened in 1895 and only restored to Howard City in 1899.

After an 1883 fire destroyed many of the wooden buildings on Ensley Street, Howard City's Main Street shifted to Edgerton Street, where it remains today.

Howard City was home to the Olsen Knife Company, grown out of the Hudson Knife factory, whose advertising jingle ran "Fatty Fatty run for your life, here comes Skinny with an Olsen Knife."

Howard City had a population of 1,835 at the 2020 census, living in 696 households — the largest population in the village's history.

Howard City students attend Tri County Area Schools, created on April 3, 1962, when Howard City and Sand Lake merged their districts; the name reflects that students come from three counties — Kent, Montcalm, and Newaygo — and the teams are the Vikings.

U.S. Route 131 passes about 2 miles west of Howard City, and Tamarack Creek, a tributary of the Little Muskegon River, flows through the village's north side.

Howard City shrank for decades after its lumber-era start, bottoming out at 791 residents in 1950, before suburban-era growth more than doubled it by 2020.