Grant: the onion capital that grew out of a drained marsh

The dirt east of Grant is so black it looks burnt, and that soil explains a big piece of the town’s story. It is muck: deep organic soil formed in wet ground. Michigan State University says most Michigan onions are grown on muck because it holds water well and carries plenty of nitrogen.

It was not always farmland. Rice Lake and the wet ground around it were drained in the early twentieth century. A Michigan Farm News account from 1936 said the project had drawn criticism from duck hunters and fishers, but the reclaimed soil soon supported a valuable onion crop and several large storage houses.

Onions became part of Grant’s identity. An MSU Newaygo County plan notes that some of the county’s largest muck farms sit in its eastern half and that Grant is known by an onion-capital nickname. It is hometown pride, not a measured ranking, but it fits a place ringed by dark vegetable fields.

Drive the back roads east of town in late summer and the landscape explains the nickname better than a sign can: low crop fields run flat toward the tree line on ground that used to hold much more water.