Cooks is an unincorporated community in Schoolcraft County

Schoolcraft County, Michigan

-National protected areas:* Hiawatha National Forest * Seney National Wildlife Refuge-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 8,903 people, 3,606 households, and 2,498 families residing in the county. The population density was 8 people per square mile . There were 5,700 housing units...

, 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"....

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Cooks is located in Inwood Township

Inwood Township, Michigan

Inwood Township is a civil township of Schoolcraft County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 722 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...

 along the Canadian National Railway

Canadian National Railway

The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....

 north of U.S. Route 2

U.S. Route 2

U.S. Route 2 is an east–west U.S. Highway spanning across the northern continental United States. US 2 consists of two segments connected by various roadways in southern Canada...

, 11.5 miles (18.5 km) west-southwest of Manistique

Manistique, Michigan

Manistique is a city in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 3,583. It is the county seat of Schoolcraft County and the only incorporated community in the county. The city lies on the north shore of Lake Michigan, at the southwest corner...

. Cooks has a post office

Post office

A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...

 with ZIP code

ZIP Code

ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...

 49817.

History

Cooks was founded in 1883 when John C. Cook built a sawmill

Sawmill

A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....

 at the community. The community was originally named Cook's Mills before being shortened to Cooks. A post office opened in the community on June 28, 1888; Norman McDonald was the first postmaster. The community had a station on the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad

Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad

The Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad was a Class I railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the Midwest U.S. Commonly known as the Soo Line after the phonetic spelling of Sault, it was merged with several other major CP subsidiaries on January 1, 1961 to form the...

under the name Cooks Mill.