How Delta County got its name

Most Michigan counties are named for a person — a governor, an explorer, a chief, a president. Delta County is named for a shape. When the county was first drawn on the map in 1843, its borders took in not just today’s county but all of what’s now Menominee County and slices of Dickinson, Iron, and Marquette counties besides. Laid out on a map, all that territory formed a neat triangle — and to the surveyors of the day, it looked just like the Greek letter delta. So Delta it became.

Here’s the funny part: the triangle didn’t last. As the Upper Peninsula filled in, Delta gave away piece after piece to form its neighbors, and by the time the county was formally organized in 1861 and settled into its modern borders, the delta shape was long gone. The name stayed anyway. Even the county seat wandered a bit in the early days — the records sat in little Masonville for a few years before moving to Escanaba in 1864, where the courthouse has been ever since.

So if you ever look at a map of Delta County and wonder where the triangle is: it isn’t. You’re looking at the one Michigan county named for a piece of geometry that no longer exists.