Armada, Michigan - 48005

Armada, (ar-MAY-dah), is located in northern Macomb County in Armada Township, at the junction of North and Armada Center Roads. Armada is particularly known regionally and state-wide for celebrating the Armada Fair, always one week before the Michigan State Fair, usually falling on the third weekend in August. Its high rating by travel associations has been earned by this small town’s ability to pack an extravaganza of many activities into what appears to be a big town operation.

The town was originally called Burke’s Corners, and later Honeoye, after Honeoye Falls, New York. It was accidentally named "Armada" in 1867, when in a drawn-out meeting to officially organize the town, Hosea Northrup, one of the town elders, abruptly got up and said: "It will be Armada," and everyone went along with it because they wanted the meeting to adjourn. Speculation has it that it may have been named after a community in New York State, or Canada, where most of the early settlers came from. Or Northrup could have just been randomly thinking about the Spanish Armada at the time, but, according to the local historical society, nobody knows for sure!