Mio: the heart of Oscoda County

Mio is the county seat and the main town of Oscoda County. Like everywhere else in the county, though, it’s an unincorporated community, not an official city. It sits right on the Au Sable River, where M-33 and M-72 meet. Most of the county’s everyday services are here: the county offices and courts, the K-12 Mio-AuSable school, shops and restaurants, and the local weekly newspaper.

For over a century, the town’s landmark was the 1888 Oscoda County Courthouse. The white wood-frame building with a steeple was one of the oldest of its kind in Michigan — until a fire took it in 2016. A new courthouse was built on the same downtown block and opened in 2020. Out front stands the glass-encased monument to the Kirtland’s warbler. It was dedicated decades ago as one of the first monuments anywhere to a songbird. The county fair is one of the year’s big gatherings. Its full name — the Oscoda County Fair and Forestry Exposition — is a nod to the area’s deep logging roots.

One bit of local trivia: Mio holds the record for the hottest temperature ever measured in Michigan, 112 degrees back in July 1936. For day-to-day living, Mio is the practical center of a very rural county. It’s the place you’ll come for groceries, the bank, school, and county business.