Bath, Michigan

Bath is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Bath Charter Township, Clinton County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 2,083.[3]

Bath, Michigan
Census-designated place (CDP) & unincorporated community
Bath Location within the state of Michigan
Coordinates: 42°49′07″N 84°26′55″W
Country	United States
State	Michigan
County	Clinton County
Township	Bath Township
Area
• Total	5.9 sq mi (15.4 km^2)
• Land	5.8 sq mi (14.9 km^2)
• Water	0.2 sq mi (0.5 km^2)
Elevation	856 ft (261 m)
Population  (2010)
• Total	2,083
• Density	363/sq mi (140.1/km^2)
Time zone	UTC−5 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
ZIP Code	48808
Area code(s)	517
FIPS code	26-05880[1]
GNIS feature ID	620744[2]

Geography

The Bath CDP is situated just north of exit 92 off Interstate 69, about 5 miles (8 km) north of East Lansing. The community has no elected officials nor any separate governmental functions from the township and serves to generally describe the central business district of Bath Township, centered at Webster and Clark roads. The CDP has a total area of 5.9 square miles (15.4 km²), of which 5.8 square miles (14.9 km²) is land and 0.19 square miles (0.5 km²), or 3.35%, is water.[3]

Bath is the home of the 2007 Class C boys basketball state champions, and, between 1982 and 2002, was the home of the sportsman TV series, Fred Trost's Practical Sportsman.

History

Bath was platted in 1864.[4]

Bath School disaster

Main article: Bath School disaster

On May 18, 1927, in what became known as the Bath School disaster, Andrew Kehoe, a farmer and local school board member angry over losing an election for town clerk and under notice for foreclosure, killed his wife, detonated bombs in his house and farm buildings, and at the same time set off a bomb in the consolidated school. He drove to the school in a truck rigged with more explosives, which he detonated next to the school superintendent. In all, Kehoe killed 44 people, 38 of them children, and himself, in the worst school mass murder in U.S. history. Only half of the 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of explosives set under the school went off, probably greatly lowering the death toll. Thirty-eight of the 314 students, three teachers, the superintendent, the postmaster, and a local farmer assisting at the scene were killed. Most of the dead were students from second to sixth grade. Fifty-eight others were injured.

See also

• Bath Community Schools, which serves Bath and surrounding areas

References

Notes

1. "U.S. Census website". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
2. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Bath, Michigan
3. "Geographic Identifiers: 2010 Demographic Profile Data (G001): Bath CDP, Michigan". U.S. Census Bureau, American Factfinder. Archived from the original on February 12, 2020. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
4. Romig 1986, p. 46.

Sources

• Romig, Walter (October 1, 1986) [1973]. Michigan Place Names: The History of the Founding and the Naming of More Than Five Thousand Past and Present Michigan Communities (Paperback). Great Lakes Books Series. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. ISBN 978-0814318386.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

Further reading

• Wilkins, Gene H.; Ellsworth, Monty J. (2002). My Scrapbook on the Bath School Bombing of May 18th, 1927 with Many Never Before Published Photographs, Stories & Survivors' Quotes. Bath, MI: Timber Wolf. OCLC 50074882. Online transcription of the first edition.