Editing Emmet County, Michigan (section)

===Further political divisions===
On April 27, 1857, an election selected Little Traverse (now named Harbor Springs) as the county seat. However, at about this time, investors were trying to promote development at Mackinaw City. Due to their influence, in February 1858, the State Legislature passed an act establishing Mackinaw City as the county seat. The Emmet County Board of Supervisors protested that the county seat had already been established at Little Traverse, and in 1861 the act was repealed as unconstitutional. In a contested election in 1867, residents voted to move the county seat to [[Charlevoix, Michigan|Charlevoix]], which was upheld by a Circuit Court decision in 1868. However, in 1869, Charlevoix County was split from Emmet County, resulting in the county seat being in another county. No provisions for official relocation were authorized, although [[Harbor Springs, Michigan|Harbor Springs]] served as the unofficial county seat until April 1902. The present county seat of Petoskey was selected at that time in a county-wide election.
{{CSS image crop|Image=1872_Chicago_%26_Canada_Southern.jpg|bSize=5000|cWidth=250|cHeight=350|oTop=500|oLeft=2000|Location=right|Description=Most of present day [[Charlevoix County, Michigan|Charlevoix County]] was originally part of Emmet County.}}

[[Charlevoix Township, Michigan|Charlevoix Township]] was organized in 1853 and included all of the nine townships in the southern half of the county. In the 1855 reorganization, four new townships were created by the State Legislature:
* La Croix Township (name changed to [[Cross Village Township, Michigan|Cross Village Township]] in 1875)
* [[Little Traverse Township, Michigan|Little Traverse Township]] (detached from Charlevoix Township)
* [[Bear Creek Township, Michigan|Bear Creek Township]] (detached from Charlevoix Township)
* Old Fort Mackinac (later absorbed into other townships)

In 1855, county supervisors also established the townships of Arbour Croche and Utopia. (The former was a mangled spelling derived from the French ''[[L'Arbre Croche]]'', the historic village later renamed as Harbor Springs.) The state had inadvertently drawn boundaries for Little Traverse and Bear Creek townships such that one area was included in both. The county supervisors' Arbour Croche was defined as having the same boundaries as the state-defined Little Traverse Township, excluding the area overlapping with Bear Creek. Eventually the name Arbour Croche disappeared in favor of Little Traverse. The township of Utopia was later absorbed into other townships.

In 1877, six additional townships were organized:
* [[Bliss Township, Michigan|Bliss Township]]
* [[Friendship Township, Michigan|Friendship Township]]
* [[Littlefield Township, Michigan|Littlefield Township]]
* [[Maple River Township, Michigan|Maple River Township]]
* [[Pleasantview Township, Michigan|Pleasantview Township]]
* [[Readmond Township, Michigan|Readmond Township]]

[[Center Township, Michigan|Center Township]] was added in 1878 and [[Carp Lake Township, Emmet County, Michigan|Carp Lake Township]] in 1879. [[Resort Township, Michigan|Resort Township]] and [[Springvale Township, Michigan|Springvale Township]] were formed in 1880, but were at that time part of Charlevoix County. Those townships, along with Bear Creek, experienced numerous boundary changes. The now defunct townships of Bear Lake and Spring Lake were created out of portions of these townships. In 1897, the portions of these townships remaining in Emmet County were absorbed into Bear Creek and Springvale townships.

Also organized in 1897 were [[West Traverse Township, Michigan|West Traverse Township]] (from portions of Friendship and Little Traverse Townships) and Egleston Township (name changed to [[McKinley Township, Emmet County, Michigan|McKinley Township]] in 1903). In 1923, [[Wawatam Township, Michigan|Wawatam Township]] was the last township organized in the county, when it was detached from Carp Lake Township.