Oakland County, Michigan
Healthy Home Assessments in Keego Harbor
A half-square-mile lake town wedged into Oakland County's chain of lakes about 27 miles from downtown Detroit, Keego Harbor is one of Michigan's three smallest cities by land area yet packs a walkable downtown of restaurants, shops, and art galleries along Cass Lake Road and Orchard Lake Road. We look at the environment your family actually breathes.
The homes of Keego Harbor
Half-square-mile lake town between Cass and Sylvan lakes that grew from a 1900s cottage resort reached by the Detroit-Pontiac railway. Also noted: Harbor town of Cass Lake, the largest and deepest lake in Oakland County. 1,369 households, 3,029 residents. Sawyer named the settlement 'Keego, ' a phonetic spelling of the Anishinaabemowin word 'giigoonh' (fish); the spelling comes from Longfellow's poem The Song of Hiawatha.
What the numbers say
Owner-occupancy sits at 65.3%, and 63.5% of all units are detached single-family homes, per 2023 five-year Census figures. Bachelor's attainment among adults is 42.2%. One landmark on the ground here: Dollar Lake and Joseph Sawyer's 1912 canal connecting it to Cass Lake, the original 'harbor.'.
With Cass Lake nearby, seasonal humidity behaves differently, and moisture is where the assessment starts.
Ground that fixes Keego Harbor on the map:
- Cass Lake shoreline. Keego Harbor sits on the eastern edge of Cass Lake, Oakland County's largest and deepest lake at 1,280 acres and 123 feet deep.
- Sawyer's canal and harbor. Pontiac lawyer Joseph E. Sawyer platted the town around 1902, dug a canal linking Dollar Lake to Cass Lake, and named it Keego, Ojibwe for 'fish' from The Song of Hiawatha.
- Fran Leaf Park memorial. Park funded by community donations to honor educator Frances M. Leaf, 1969 Woman of the Year, after her death in 1971.
- Fran Leaf Park. Neighborhood park at 2138 Brock Street.
- City swim sites. Public lake swim access points maintained by the city on the Cass Lake system.
Where the addresses are
Mail runs through the 48320 ZIP code. Its population has barely moved in six decades: about 2,761 residents in 1960 and 2,764 in the 2020 census.