Wexford

Formed April 1, 1840 (64^th county)

Wexford County (33,668), Cadillac (10,368)

The 1911 Classical Revival facility is on Division Street at Harris streets.  United States Highway 131 Business passes one block east of the courthouse.  Edwyn A. Bond provided the designs for this dark red brick building.  The structure was enlarged in 2002.  The was an 1872 courthouse earlier.  The building features columns.  Veteran memorials and a military gun sit across the street.  The county was established on April 1, 1840 from Mackinac County as the 64^th county.  It is named for County Wexford, Ireland.  The county seat is named for Frenchman Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac.  Sherman (1870), Manton (1881), and Cadillac (1882) have all served as the county seat. 

Wexford County government consists of an executive, a sheriff, an administrator, an attorney, a treasurer and a clerk (executive).  It has 9 Commissioners (legislative.)  One Circuit Court Judge and Two District Court Judges serve Wexford and Missaukee counties and Two Probate Court Judges and court clerk serve Wexford County (judicial.) The county is in the northwest part of the southern peninsula.  The geographical center of Michigan is 5 miles north-northwest of Cadillac in the county.  Grand Rapids, Michigan is south of the county.  The county center is 13.4 miles North-Northwest of Cadillac nearer Manton.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Missaukee, Osceola, Lake, Manistee, and Benzie counties. 

The area of the county is 576 square miles.  It is 62 out of 83 in the state.  It ranks 46 out of 83 in population in the state.  It has a density of 58.5 persons per square mile making it 38 out of 83 in the state.  Wexford County has 38.4% of its population in its incorporated areas.  United States Highway 131 goes north to south from Grand Traverse County to Osceola County.  Wexford County is a rectangle.  Cadillac is in the southeast quarter of the county.  Cadillac is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 30.8% of the county population.  The county is pronounced WEX-FORD.  This county is in the Cadillac Micropolitan Statistical Area.