Marquette, MI

Marquette (/mɑːrˈkɛt/ mar-KET) is the county seat of Marquette County and the largest city in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, United States. Located on the shores of Lake Superior, Marquette is a major port known primarily for shipping iron ore (hematite, magnetite) from the Marquette Iron Range. The city is partially surrounded by Marquette Township, but the two are administered autonomously.

Marquette is named after Jacques Marquette, a French Jesuit missionary who had explored the Great Lakes region. Marquette had a population of 20,629 at the 2020 census, making it the largest city in Michigan north of the Tri-Cities. It is the third-largest American city on Lake Superior, behind Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin. Marquette’s urban area extends south toward Harvey and west toward Negaunee and Ishpeming, at the base of the Huron Mountains.

Marquette is the home of Northern Michigan University (NMU), a four-year public university. NMU’s athletic teams are nicknamed the Wildcats and compete primarily in the NCAA Division II Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC). The men’s ice hockey team, which competes in the NCAA Division I Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA), won the Division I national championship in 1991.