Welcome to the Charter Township of Chocolay

Here you can find meeting agendas and minutes and current news and announcements. We are here to be a service to our residents and others looking to visit our friendly community.

Please contact us if you have any questions or comments.

We are proud of our Township and the beautiful natural surroundings. We have many rivers, creeks and miles of clean, sandy Lake Superior shoreline with lots of recreation areas for people to enjoy all four seasons.

Chocolay Township is located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in Marquette County. We are along the shores of Lake Superior just a few miles east from the city of Marquette.

The origins of Chocolay Township began when the Wisconsin Glacier which was 8,000 to 10,000 feet thick melted. It was under this glacier for 30,000 to 40,000 years. This glacier carved out the rivers and hills throughout the Upper Peninsula.

This location was used by the Indians as a summer camping place. French explorers used the name Chocolate for the river because of its dark brown color in their map marking. In the early 1900's that spelling was changed to Chocolay. In 1842 this river was a well known boundary marker in the Treaty of 1842, when mineral lands to the west of it were ceded to the United States by the Chippewa Indians. This territory extended to the head of Lake Superior, which was known then as Fond du Lac or "bottom of the lake".

Chocolay Township was created in March of 1860 from a part of Marquette Township, which at the time covered all of Marquette County. Various parts were later given to surrounding townships of Forsyth, Turin, Sands, Skandia and West Branch. It became a Charter Township on May 16, 1972. The census in 2000 was 6,095.

(Information from "History and Background of Chocolay Township 1860-1964", Centennial Edition, published July 1964)