Royal Oak, city, Oakland County, southeastern Michigan, a residential and commercial community near Detroit; settled 1819, incorporated as a city 1921. It has three major industrial zones. The city is the site of the Detroit Zoological Park and the Shrine of the Little Flower, whose former pastor, Father Charles E. Coughlin, was noted for his controversial radio broadcasts in the 1930s. The name of the city is said to refer to a large oak tree here, called a “royal oak” by Lewis Cass, governor of Michigan Territory (1813-31). Population 70,893 (1980); 65,410 (1990); 60,062 (2000).
