Cheboygan, MI
How exposed is Cheboygan to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Cheboygan at the 18th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 2,895 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Cheboygan at the 19th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Cheboygan's buildings (70.2% of 2,895) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
Where Cheboygan ranks
Compare Cheboygan's two percentiles: 62nd within Michigan, only 18th nationally — a gap of 44 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cheboygan ranks 25,748 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,594 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 285 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Cheboygan
Cheboygan's low rating (18th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Cheboygan
Even with 70.2% of Cheboygan outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Cheboygan's 18th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Cheboygan, see the exposure-zones guide.