Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Lake Ann, MI

Lake Ann is a village in northeastern Benzie County, situated within Almira Township about 10 miles west of Traverse City, on which it largely depends.

The lake — and then the village — was named by Addison P. Wheelock, whose family was the first to settle on it, after his wife, Ann.

Lake Ann was established in 1864, organized in 1893, and incorporated as a village in 1914, and it was once a station on the Manistee and North-Eastern Railroad.

In its lumber-era boom of the late 1890s, Lake Ann rivaled Traverse City with roughly 1,000 inhabitants and more than 100 buildings, including hotels, stores, and a depot.

Lake Ann was virtually destroyed by fire three times — the first on July 4, 1897, and the third in 1918, after which it was never rebuilt to its former size.

Lake Ann had 273 residents at the 2020 census, up slightly from 268 in 2010, when the village had 118 households.

Lake Ann Camp, a Christian summer camp established just west of the village in 1948 on the grounds of a former resort and golf course, remains a local institution.

Almira Township, which surrounds the village, is named for Almira Burrell, the wife of the township's first settler, Andrew Burrell.