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The Village of Stanwood, Michigan, in eastern Mecosta Township, in the southwest quadrant of Mecosta County, is home to a large Amish community.

The chief routes to and from the village are Northland Drive, Stanwood Drive, Pierce Road, and 8 Mile Road. Cities and villages within twenty-five miles of Stanwood include Morley, Big Rapids, Howard City, Mecosta, White Cloud, Lakeview, Pierson, Sand Lake, and Reed City.

With more than eight Amish families living in or around Stanwood, it is a quiet village, with a population below two hundred, as of the 2020 census. Its peak population was 278 in 1920.

Morley Stanwood Community Schools operates an elementary school in Stanwood that enrolls students in preschool through the fifth grade.

The small village doesn't have a lot of commercial or industrial activity, but Nestle Waters operates a plant in the village that produces Ice Mountain and Nestle Pure Life bottled water. The village also has a convenience store, a gas station, a gift shop, a feed store, sporting goods shop, a vintage shop, and a pub, as well as an archery center, a barbershop, and a couple of restaurants. Additionally, a number of Amish shops sell produce and handmade goods.

Stanwood has a post office, a Greyhound bus stop, and a few churches.

The Fred Meijer White Pine Trail, a 92-mile trail extending from Grand Rapids to Cadillac passes through the village. Lying on the grade of the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad, the White Pine Trail is a rail trail park.

In anticipation of the railroad coming in 1870, European-American settlers came to the Stanwood area during the 1860s. Before long, the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad came through, establishing a depot in Stanwood, and a post office that had previously been in Big Creek was moved to Stanwood and renamed. Reportedly, the name was a reference to the stands of timber in the area.

John Bell may have been the first European-American settler when he came to the area from Ontario in the 1850s. He logged in what became known as Bell's Siding, a logging community near where Morley Stanwood Middle/High School is now.

Another significant settler was George W. Reed, who came to the region at the age of nineteen in 1863, after serving two years in the 16th Michigan Volunteer Infantry during the early years of the American Civil War. He came to work as a woodsworker. After working in the forests at Stanwood for a couple of years, he acquired 80 acres of land in Stanwood through the Homestead Act of 1865. Ten years later, he moved from his log cabin to open a mercantile business in the village itself. When A post office was established on October 18, 1870, he served as the village's first postmaster, later becoming township supervisor and a justice of the peace.

Stanwood was incorporated as a village in 1907.

The focus of this part of our guide is on the Village of Stanwood, Michigan. Online resources for the municipal government or any other governmental entity located within the city are appropriate for this category, as are local businesses, industries, schools, churches and other places of worship, organizations, attractions, events, entertainment venues, and recreational opportunities.

 

 

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