Residents by Gender
Male population	1,816
Female population	1,862
Total			3,678

Age Distribution
0-19			21.0%
20-24			  2.9%
25-44			24.0%
45-64			30.1%
65+			21.0%
Median Age		     46

Labor Force
Total work force	2,001
Employed		1,944
Unemployed                 57
Unemployment rate	  1.9%

Housing
Number of dwellings	3,473
Owner occupied		1,446
Renter occupied                       200
Median rent                            $595
Median home value                $162,200
           

Personal Income
Median family	$53,942
Average per capita	$30,868
Median household	$47,778

2004 Building Statistics
New Residential homes	42
Value of new homes	$15,141,064
Total Building Permits	334
Value of Improvements	$30,385,444




Climate
Ave Max Temperature    32F in Jan & 82F in July
Ave Min Temperature     18F in Jan & 61F in July

Days over 90F	11
Days below 0F	 4

Days of Growing Season	162

Average Annual Rainfall	37"
Average Annual Snowfall	70"
           

The earliest known residents of the area where the Miami Indians, who lived in semi-permanent villages, hunted, fished and engaged in simple agriculture. They were encountered by European explorers Father Jacques Marquette (1675) and Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle (1679). A few years later, the Miamis were displaced by the Potowatami Indians. Their principal settlements were also along the rivers. Most of the land was clothed in a hardwood forest of beech, maple and oak. Some of the Potowatamis spent summer weeks making sugar in the vicinity of what is now Warren Woods.

The area of Chikaming Township seems to have been little touched by the early explorers. A triangle of transport routes enclosed but scarcely touched it. On the west, of course, was the "great expanse" of Lake Michigan, which was undoubtedly used by Indians moving up and down the coast. On the east was the St. Joseph River flowing northwest from the present site of South Bend to its mount where the twin cities of St. Joseph and Benton Harbor are now situated. The St. Joseph River was an important route for the Indians and the early French "voyageurs" in their canoes, because near South Bend was an easy portage to the Kankakee River, a tributary of the Mississippi River system. The third side of the transport triangle around Chikaming lay to the south where the "old Saulk Trail," later the "Chicago Road," carried foot traffic east and west. Consequently, prior to Yankee Settlement, Chikaming was largely by-passed and remained a wilderness.

By the 1820s the Potowatamis were badly demoralized by defeat in battle and by the white man's diseases and liquor. In 1828 they ceded to the U.S. Government the territory which includes present-day Chikaming Township. The territorial legislature of Michigan created Berrien County on October 29, 1829. It was also in 1829 that the U.S. Government extended into southwest Michigan its Township and range system of rectangular land survey.

White immigration started in earnest when the last "reservation" of the Potowatamis near Niles was ceded to the U.S. Government in 1833. A major impetus to settlement was the passage by Congress of the Preemption Act of 1841. This made it possible for a settler to buy 160 acres of land at only $1.25 per acre, providing he had lived on it for six months beforehand. In 1842 Richard Peckham took up a quarter section near present-day Lakeside. (He, it is said, gave the area the name Chikaming.) Alfred Ames, a native of Vermont, settled in 1844 on the lake bluff near what is now the Lakeside Inn. His wife was a schoolteacher, and in 1847 their home became the first school in the area.

In 1853 or 1854, Silas Sawyer bought land near the village that now bears his name and built a steam sawmill. About the same time, the Wilkinson brothers took up land in Sections 19 and 20, erected a sawmill, and built the Wilkinson, Pike and Greenbush piers in order to export lumber by schooner to Chicago. These were located at present-day Lakeside, Cherry Beach and Harbert, respectively. The community of Union Pier receives its name from another pier built about this time. By 1856, the area was sufficiently settled that Chikaming and Three Oaks were set off from New Buffalo as separate Townships. The township was organized on March 6, 1856 and Silas Sawyer was elected its first Supervisor.

Interests in St. Joseph had for years wanted a real link to the outside world. In 1870 this dream was realized by completion of the Chicago and Michigan Lake Shore Railroad, which connected St. Joseph to New Buffalo. This, of course, was a tremendous boost for Chikaming, making export of produce more profitable. The State required the railroad to build stations at least every five miles along the track for the benefit of farmers Thus, stations and post offices were established at Troy (later renamed Sawyer), Greenbush (which became Harbert), Wilkinson (now Lakeside), and Townline (now Union Pier). These unincorporated villages remain to this day the principal concentrations of population in Chikaming.

Lumber production and export peaked in 1890. Fortunately, a new industry, tourism, came about that time to support the local economy. The first summer resorts appeared along the lake shore of Chikaming as early as 1891. These were initially rather rustic developments in which guests were housed in simple shelters, even tents, but they were very popular with Chicago people. Guests at these camps and lodges arrived and departed by train, and flocked to the sandy beaches and nearby woods. By the early 1900s there were seven such resorts in south Lakeside near the Lakeside Inn, and others were clustered in Harbert, Sawyer, and Union Pier. Among the latter were establishments patronized by various ethnic groups adding touches to the community. Settlements of a religious nature (Bethany Beach) and those with a concern for the environment (Prairie Club) were also established. About the same time, a group of affluent families from Chicago built homes in the northern part of Lakeside. The Chikaming Country Club was founded in 1911, and a few years later acquired enough land to build an eighteen-hole golf course.

Development in Chikaming since World War II has been at a moderate pace until the last twenty years or so. Summer residents increasingly buy or build second homes in Chikaming rather than renting. The ready accessibility of Chikaming from the great metropolitan area of Chicago has made it a desirable summer refuge, and land values have skyrocketed due to the demand for residential properties. A campground and manufactured home park have been established along Warren Woods Road, and a steel-working plant now adjoins the Sawyer exit of I-94. Most commercial development within the Township is situated along the Red Arrow Highway with local concentrations at the unincorporated villages of Union Pier, Lakeside, Harbert and Sawyer.