The improvement of the Chicago Turnpike between Detroit and Chicago (present-day U.S. 12) from a mere trail to “an overland extension of the Erie Canal” precipitated the platting of Coldwater in 1832 and its incorporation as a village in 1837. Coldwater became the seat of...
Settled in 1831, Battle Creek began to develop after 1835, when entrepreneur Sands McCamly built a dam, a power canal, and a sawmill on the Kalamazoo River. The village was platted in 1836 and incorporated as a village in 1850. It became a city in 1859 following the...
Marshall is the perfect summation of a midwestern small-town county seat with a main street that is still the commercial center of town, a public square, older churches still used by their original congregations and located on parallel streets to either side of the main...
Michiana and the Southwestern Lower Peninsula is a region of woodlands, oak openings, small fertile prairies and grasslands, river bluffs and marshes, sand dunes, and lakeshore. It is bounded on the west by the restless expanse of Lake Michigan,...
Kalamazoo is a name familiar to many Americans, immortalized by Carl Sandburg in his poem “The Sins of Kalamazoo” and popularized by the World War II–era song “I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo.” Kalamazoo also has supplied the world with products as diverse as peppermint,...
The twin cities of St. Joseph and Benton Harbor straddle the mouth of the St. Joseph River on the sandy southeastern shore of Lake Michigan. This location greatly influenced the early development of both cities. So did economic and cultural ties...
Located along a principal ford across the St. Joseph River, Niles was the site of major Miami and Potawatomi Indian encampments, an early Jesuit mission, a French fort, an Indian uprising and treaty, a very short Spanish occupation, and a Baptist Indian school—all...
Rivers played an important role in the development of the Grand River valley. The Grand and the Kalamazoo rivers and their tributaries provided the early means of access and transportation into the region from the Lake Michigan shore. Grand Haven, Singapore, Saugatuck...
With a population of nearly 200,000, Grand Rapids is Michigan's second-largest city. It is nestled in the Grand River valley forty miles inland from Lake Michigan. Native Americans recognized the advantages of the site and used it as a meeting and trading center....
Samuel Dexter of Herkimer County, New York, led settlers to present-day Ionia along the banks of the winding Grand River in 1833. The town's commercial area first grew around Dexter's sawmill and other industries powered by the waters of West Creek. With its establishment as...
Located on the Kalamazoo River, a short distance from its outlet into Lake Michigan, Douglas stretches west with a long string of large cottages along Lake Michigan. The village was settled as a lumber mill town in 1851, laid out in 1861, and incorporated in 1870. The...
This picturesque resort community and art colony is on the Kalamazoo River near its mouth in the sand dunes along Lake Michigan. The river widens into a small lake that forms a harbor. Saugatuck developed in the 1860s and 1870s as a sawmill and tannery town. Nearby peach...
In 1847 a group of Dutch immigrants under the leadership of the Reverend Albertus C. Van Raalte from Rotterdam selected a one-thousand-acre site at the mouth of the Black River and established this town. They built homes, farms, and businesses. In 1851 a pioneer...
Grand Haven is located where the Grand River flows into Lake Michigan. In 1834 settlers arrived, in 1835 the town was platted, and in 1836 a sawmill was built. The economy developed around sawmills and shingle mills, shipbuilding, commercial fishing, tourism, and resorts...
The Capital Region is in the middle of the Lower Peninsula's gently rolling agricultural plains. At its center, at the confluence of the Grand and Red Cedar rivers at Lansing, is the state capital. Highways radiate out in all directions from the capital linking it not only with...
Situated in thick woods and swamp lands at the confluence of the Grand and Red Cedar rivers, Lansing grew as the commercial center for the central Michigan farming area, as an automobile manufacturing center, and as the state capital.
In 1835 two timber cruisers in...
Settlers came from East Poultney, Vermont, in 1836 to establish at Vermontville the Union Colony. The colony was devoted to the preaching and teaching of Congregationalist ideals. The former Vermonters who settled this area invoked New England methods of land...
Once densely forested with stands of towering white pine and some hardwood, the Saginaw Bay and River Valley Region is immediately accessible to water transportation on the Great Lakes. The gently flowing Saginaw River, with its tributaries the Cass,...
Saginaw is sited on a ridge of dry land, unusual along the otherwise swampy course of the Saginaw River. The town grew in economic importance in the 1820s when the American Fur Company and other fur buyers established trading posts. When the transfer of Indian lands was...
Fifteen immigrants from Neuendettelsau, Germany, arrived in the Saginaw area in July 1845. They acquired land for a mission on the Cass River in present-day Frankenmuth and established a settlement. During 1846 eighty more settlers arrived, and in less than a decade more...
Midland is a precious example of a small town, far from major lines of communication but one that developed with a realization of its international importance. The parochialism that characterizes a small town struggled with importations from the world at large. The town began...
Before 1830, settlers avoided the area that would become Bay City, because they had heard of its impenetrable forests and insect-infested river swamps. Timber speculators recognized, however, that the dense forests and watery surroundings made it a prime target...
Jacob Smith was the first Euro-American to venture into the Flint area, establishing a trading post in 1811. After the peaceful signing of the 1819 Saginaw treaty that transferred Chippewa lands to the U.S. government, he built a permanent cabin on the north bank of the Flint...
Attracted by the rapids of the Shiawassee River that promised a source of waterpower, Daniel Ball had completed by 1837 a dam and millrace that supplied power to the town's infant timber- and crop-processing industries. The first modest wooden Greek Revival houses and...
The Thumb of the mitten-shaped Lower Peninsula is itself a peninsula surrounded by the waters of Lake Huron, the St. Clair River, and Lake St. Clair. The land juts out into Lake Huron with Saginaw Bay on its west side. On the east, the waters of Lake Huron and the St. Clair River...
Port Huron lies at the foot of Lake Huron and the head of the St. Clair River. Though incorporated in 1857, the city began its actual commercial growth in the 1820s, as people spilled out from the Fort Gratiot Military Reservation along the Black River. Aided by the...
In 1765 British officer Patrick Sinclair established a military and trading post at the confluence of the Pine with the St. Clair River to control the transportation of supplies from Detroit to Michilimackinac. It was closed twenty years later. The village was laid out in...
Located at the confluence of the Belle and the St. Clair rivers and surrounded by agricultural land, Marine City prospered from its lumber mills and shipbuilding industry. It was incorporated in 1865. The most prominent historical thoroughfare is Main Street between...
Beginning in the 1870s Harsens Island was developed as a resort area within easy reach of the Detroit docks by steamship. Today, an automobile ferry departs from 3647 Pointe Tremble Road, 0.5 miles west of Algonac city limits. Private clubhouses, resort hotels, and...
Lapeer was established in 1831. It was settled by New York State land speculators and the Pontiac Mill Company. In 1869 Lapeer was incorporated as a city, and within three years, boasted 3,000 residents and a prosperous downtown shopping area along Nepassing Street. Growth was...
