[1] Waterford Township has five unincorporated communities: Lewis Cass, the third governor of Michigan Territory, established the boundaries of Oakland County in 1819.

[11] In 1818, Oliver Williams selected land in Oakland County[12] that he purchased for two dollars an acre.

In 1818, Oliver Williams and his family established the first farm settlement in the county on the banks of Silver Lake.

In 1819, Alpheus Williams and Archibald Phillips continued on to where the Clinton River crossed the old Saginaw Trail (now known as Dixie Highway).

Here the first house of Waterford Village was built by Alpheus Williams on the north bank of the river.

Archibald Phillips built his home across from the south corner where Andersonville Road meets Dixie Highway.

Williams and Phillips also built the first dam where the Clinton River crossed the Saginaw Trail and erected the first sawmill.

The West Campus of the Oakland County Service Center is located in Waterford Township.

The township's warmest weather occurs in the summer with temperatures in the eighty to ninety degree range and typically high humidity.

Fall starts warm, but November ends with high temperatures barely above freezing.

[32] The airport is a hub for the airline Lakeshore Express, a local commuter airline to Pellston, and Chicago-Midway[33] In 1851, the Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railway came through Waterford Township and three train depots were built in Waterford Township; the Drayton Plains depot (at Hatchery Rd.

The resort was easily accessed by four trains a day during the summer months from the 1890s to the 1940s and was located on Lotus Lake, near the Windiate depot.

The resort featured boating, fishing, sailing, sunbathing, tennis and a dance hall.

Today, the railroad is owned by Canadian National Railway (CN) and passenger service is no longer offered, giving way to freight only.

[46] Waterford Township is home to the Oakland Community College Highland Lakes Campus.

He was followed by Robert (Duke) Reynolds, who graduated the FBI National Academy, and then Gary Root, Paul Valad, John Dean and Daniel McCaw.

The current chief, Scott Underwood, retired as a Captain at the Warren Police Department.

The police department was drastically cut in 2010 due to the falling economy and the closing of 2 of the largest commercial tax sources- The Summit Place Mall and a General Motors facility.