Standish is a city in the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

. As of the 2000 census

United States Census, 2000

The Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...

, the city population was 1,581. It is the county seat

County seat

A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....

 of Arenac County

Arenac County, Michigan

-Demographics:As of the 2000 census, there were 17,269 people, 6,710 households, and 4,717 families residing in the county. The population density was 47 people per square mile . There were 9,563 housing units at an average density of 26 per square mile...

.

The town was platted by John D. Standish in 1871. Before the plat was formally recorded, Standish sold some of his land in the community and the town was initially named "Granton." Standish, who owned the town's first business (a sawmill), had the name changed back. It was incorporated as a village in 1893 and a city in 1903.