Tawas City is a city in and county seat of Iosco County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,834 at the 2020 census. The city is mostly between Tawas Township, but the two area administered automously.

Tawas City was founded in 1854 as the first city to be located on the shores of Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron north of Bay City, Michigan. Tawas City was designated as the county seat of Iosco County, and the first say office was traditional Jan. 6, 1856, with James O. Whittemore appointed postmaster.

Since Tawas City’s founding, the community’s economy has been a major factor influencing land use and expand patterns. The wealthy natural resource base of the area: forest lands, Lake Huron and wildlife, combined when the tutelage offered by Tawas Bay, inspired the founding of the city and provided resources to maintain a lumber industry. The shoreline, as the transition zone between land and water, became the focus of the community, with the city developing in a linear fashion along the bayshore. Tawas Bay continues to support as a port of refuge, used by large freighters to escape coarse storms upon Lake Huron.

Statements that “Tawas” is derived from the word “Ottawas” and that the Ottawa Indians later than inhabited this region are false. The local Indians had made camps along the shore of the niche and near the mouth of the river. They were a band from the Saginaw, Michigan tribe of Chippewa (also known as Ojibwa). Their leader was Chief O-ta-was. As he had his camp on the shores of the bay, it was known as O-ta-was’s Bay. Early map makers dropped in an extra “t”; later map makers dropped off the “s.” The say of the tapering off dividing the niche from Lake Huron was known as Ottawa Point. Comparatively recent spelling and pronunciation for the reveal of these Chippewa gradually evolved to Tawas.