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The unincorporated village of Deerton, Michigan is in the upper central portion of Onota Township, in Alger County, in the Upper Peninsula.

The Laughing Whitefish River flows north through the community, intersecting the North Country National Scenic Trail, which follows an abandoned roadbed that crosses the center of the village. Administered by the National Park Service, the North Country Trail (NCT) is a 4,600-mile hiking trail from Middlebury, Vermont to Lake Sakakawea State Park in central North Dakota, connecting the Long Trail and the Appalachian Trail with the Lewis and Clark Trail.

The main driving routes to, from, and through the village include the Deerton Road, the Deerton Onota Road, the Deerton Sand Lake Road, the Karvonen Road, and the Peter White Road. State Highway M-28 is just north of the community, connected to it by Deerton Road.

The nearest incorporated municipalities are the village of Chatham, 18.1 miles south-southeast, the city of Marquette, 21.1 miles west, and Munising, 24.4 miles to the east. Unincorporated communities within twenty miles of Deerton include Sand River (5.9 miles), Rock River (9.7 miles), Gordon (10.5 miles), Sundell (10.5 miles), Rumely (12.3 miles), Au Train (13.5 miles), Dukes (13.8 miles), Lawson (14.0 miles), Vick (14.3 miles), Eben Junction (15.7 miles), Harvey (16.7 miles), Beaver Grove (18.8 miles), and Christmas (20.0 miles).

Deerton got its start as a station on the Detroit, Mackinaw & Marquette Railroad in 1882, established to support area lumbering operations. The community was in Schoolcraft County until Alger County was organized in 1885, and was originally known as Deerton Station. Located on the west side of Deerton Road, the Deerton Cemetery was created on land donated by Victor Hongisto and Elias Johnson in 1903. A post office was established there on July 11, 1922, with Dora H. Gogain as the first postmaster. The community was probably named for the prevalence of deer in the area at the time.

Today, the community is very small and has never been large. The entire township has a population under four hundred. Mostly wooded, the village consists of a post office, the township hall, a few scattered residences, many of which are abandoned, and a PK-8th-grade school, part of AuTrain-Onota Public Schools.

As Deerton is an unincorporated community, it has no defined borders, so online resources bearing a Deerton postal address would be appropriate for this guide.

 

 

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