Wayne: Michigan's first county, named for Mad Anthony
Wayne County — organized in 1796 and named for General 'Mad Anthony' Wayne — is where Michigan began, and it's still the state's center of gravity.
Every Michigan county is younger than Wayne. It was organized in 1796 as part of the Northwest Territory. That was the year the American flag first rose over Detroit. At its founding, the county sprawled over land that now lies in five states. The name honors General Anthony Wayne — “Mad Anthony,” the Revolutionary War commander. His 1794 victory at Fallen Timbers, and the treaty that followed, opened Michigan to American settlement. He’s the reason a third of metro Detroit writes “Wayne” on its county line.
Being first still shows. Wayne County holds Michigan’s biggest city and its busiest border crossing. It holds the state’s great industrial story and its great cultural institutions. And beyond Detroit sit three dozen distinct hometowns. They run from Grosse Pointe’s lakeshore to Downriver’s river towns to the western suburbs along Hines Park. Two centuries of American history happened here first. If you live anywhere in Wayne County, you live where Michigan started.