The town sits on the waterfront along Lake St. Clair's Anchor Bay, and offers a public park, beach, and downtown-shopping district.

Prior to the arrival of European settlers, indigenous tribes are known to have inhabited much of New Baltimore's shoreline for thousands of years, and in the 1800s the land was recorded to have many ancient burial mounds and man made earth-works.

[7] W.B Hinsdale excavated multiple sites in New Baltimore, and recorded his countless findings in his novels in the early 20th century.

Most of these locations have long been destroyed by treasure hunters and developed over, with an unfortunate though seemingly familiar lack of regard to the public's knowledge of the city's vast history with indigenous tribes.

[8] German explorer Pierre Yax (b.1763) in Grosse Pointe, New France (now Michigan) was the first recorded non-Native American in the New Baltimore area.

[10] Pierre Yax arrived in New Baltimore in 1796 and subsequently obtained a land grant signed by President John Quincy Adams on July 23, 1826.

[12] The first evidence of a settled community came in 1845, when a Mount Clemens businessman, Alfred Ashley, platted 60 acres (24 ha) of land lying on both sides of Washington Street.

[6] The original village of Ashley occupied what is now the center part of downtown New Baltimore, extending northwest along Clay, Base and Maria Streets from Anchor Bay.

Over the years, irregularities developed in the gridiron subdivision pattern because of the lack of local controls, conflicts with French claims, and changing land uses, particularly along the waterfront area.

In its early years, New Baltimore took advantage of its waterfront location to operate port facilities exporting agriculture and manufacturing products to other communities.

The community was a popular getaway spot for Metro Detroiters and boasted an opera house, hotels, salt baths (which nearby city of Mount Clemens was famous for in the late 19th and early 20th centuries), summer and winter recreational activities, saloons, a brewery and numerous resort and commercial establishments.

The city was in the path of a steam locomotive line that ran between Detroit and Port Huron in the late 19th century.

[12] As technology changed, the city constructed an electricity plant to accommodate inter-urban passenger trains, which lasted until the mid-1920s.

The historic New Baltimore water tower was demolished in the summer of 2015 and raised in the park to take its place was the State's tallest flag.

The flagpole stands at 160 feet tall on the shores of Anchor Bay at Walter and Mary Burke Park.

The New Baltimore Lions Club raised more than $100,000 to have the flagpole installed with the intention of creating a landmark for boaters after the city's historic water tower was demolished.