Historic Sites & Attractions

History-Based Itinerary

A guided history tour is the best way to get your bearings in Bay City. Make sure to spend some time at the Bay County Historical Museum after your tour. The Museum's Kantzler Maritime Gallery provides an overview of the incredible maritime history of Bay City and features a miniature of the Saginaw River Rear Range Lighthouse. Your thirst for knowledge temporarily quenched, you'll be hungry for great food. Gatsby's, in the historic Downtown Shopping District, offers great food and atmosphere. Spend the afternoon exploring the Downtown shops and especially the Bay City Antique Center, once the Campbell House Hotel. Twilight is the best time to pay a visit to Bay City cemeteries and the final resting place of the community's heroes. Brig. General Benjamin Partridge, who fought on Little Round Top at Gettysburg and with Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, is buried at Elm Lawn Cemetery. Judge James Birney, Michigan Lt. Governor, is buried in Pine Ridge Cemetery along with 154 other Civil War veterans. If your visit to our cemeteries still haunts you, have dinner with the resident ghost at Downtown's Old City Hall.

Once the home of local government, the building housed the fire department, police department, courts and a jail. Bay City offers many lodging options for your evening respite including charming B&B's in the historic Center Avenue neighborhood.

History-Based Events

July
Honoring Our Elders Pow Wow
Tall Ship Celebration: Bay City (July 2006)

August
Lumberjack Festival

September
River of Time Living History Encampment.

October
Annual Tour of Historic Homes

Monthly
Civil War Roundtable

*Tall Ship Celebration: Bay City is not an annual event