Waterford
Lakes, lakes, and more lakes — over 30 of them. Waterford is metro Detroit's go-to for summer water life, with a deep resort history and tons of parkland.
The story
Waterford earned its name the honest way: there’s water absolutely everywhere. More than thirty named lakes sit within the township’s borders — including Cass Lake, the largest and deepest in all of Oakland County — and water covers better than a tenth of the place. The first settlers, the Williams family, arrived on the shores of Silver Lake in 1818, building one of Oakland County’s earliest farm settlements and damming the Clinton River where it crossed the old Saginaw Trail.
For a long stretch, Waterford’s destiny was summer. When the railroad pushed through in 1851, it suddenly made all those lakes an easy trip from hot, crowded Detroit — and Waterford became a genuine resort area, dotted with cottages, lake hotels, and city families escaping the heat. The cottages eventually became year-round homes and the township grew into a big suburb of 70,000, but the lake-life soul never left. This is where metro Detroiters still come to get a boat in the water, drop a fishing line, or just spend a long July day on the shore. It’s less “quaint walkable downtown” and more “find your favorite lake” — and locals wouldn’t have it any other way.
Did you know?
- Waterford is home to more than 30 named lakes — including Cass Lake, the largest and deepest lake in Oakland County.
- Waterford’s first newspaper, the Oakland Chronicle (1830), didn’t last — but its printing equipment was sold, moved to Detroit, and used to start what became the Detroit Free Press.
- The first school in all of Oakland County started in 1821 in the loft of a Waterford settler’s sheep barn, with seven students.
- Oakland County International Airport sits in Waterford — a busy general-aviation hub northwest of the big metro airports.
- Waterford is dotted with parks and recreation areas, including Pontiac Lake State Recreation Area and Waterford Oaks — lots of room to get outside year-round.
Notable locals
Waterford’s a big, spread-out township, and honestly its claim to fame is less about famous faces and more about the water — this is where generations of metro Detroiters learned to swim, fish, and waterski. The lakes themselves are the headliners here. If you grew up anywhere on this side of the metro, odds are good you’ve got a summer memory on a Waterford lake.
