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History & Culture

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History & Culture notes

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Cedar Springs: the lumber town the railroad made, before the red flannelCedar Springs grew as an 1850s lumber town in northern Kent County, boomed when the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad reached it in 1868, and became a village in 1871 — long before it was famous for underwear.
Clio was named for the Greek muse of history — by the women at a hotel partyClio, north of Flint, started as 'Varney' and was renamed for Clio, the Greek muse of history, after a hotel-keeper's appeal won over the women at an 1860s party.
Coldwater's State Public School for childrenMichigan opened a pioneering state home for orphaned and dependent children in Coldwater in 1874, built on a cottage system other states later copied.
Columbiaville was Niverville first — and a lumber baron made trains stop hereBorn as the sawmill hamlet of Niverville in 1848, renamed for a New York county in 1857, and shaped by lumber merchant William Peter — who built the 1893 brick depot with a deed clause forcing every passenger train to stop.
Crystal: a community wrapped around Crystal LakeCrystal Lake is the center of this Montcalm County community, with state and township access points, a public park, and a managed lake level.
Davison is named for a judge who actually lived next door, in AtlasDavison takes its name from pioneer and judge Norman Davison; the town grew as a railroad station in the 1870s and incorporated as a city in 1938.
Decatur: named for a naval hero, where the county startedDecatur honors War of 1812 naval hero Stephen Decatur, and its township holds the 1829 cabin site of Dolphin Morris, Van Buren County's first recorded settler.
Detroit's Historic Fort Wayne: a star fort that never fired in battleHistoric Fort Wayne, a five-pointed star fort on the Detroit River, was built in the 1840s to guard against a British attack that never came, and still stands today.
Durand throws a festival for the railroad every MayA festival that began in 1975 with a single salvaged baggage car celebrates the town that grew up around one of Michigan's busiest railroad crossings.
Edmore, where a realtor wrote his name on the mapA real-estate man platted Edmore in 1878 and folded his own name into the town's; the sandy plains turned it into potato country, and the Potato Festival still runs every September.
Fenton's museum lives in a 1900 sash-factory office that became the town libraryThe A.J. Phillips Fenton Museum fills a 1900 building once used as a manufacturer's office and later the town library, with genealogy and county cemetery records.
Flat Rock: where Henry Ford dammed the Huron to light Model T headlampsHenry Ford built a dam on the Huron River at Flat Rock in the 1920s to power a lamp factory that made headlights for his cars. The dam still stands, now with a fish ladder.
Flint built a planetarium, an art museum, and a library on one lawnA single Flint campus holds a science-and-history museum, a planetarium, an art institute, a theater, and the public library — built largely with auto-fortune giving.
Flushing's 1888 depot survived a fire and became the town museumAfter passenger service ended and a 1980 fire gutted Flushing's 1888 depot, the local historical society restored it and opened a museum.
For 50 years, Wixom built Lincolns — then the line went quietFord's Wixom Assembly Plant turned out Lincolns and Thunderbirds from 1957 to 2007; the last Lincoln Town Car rolled off the line on May 31, 2007.
Fremont's festival with an adult baby-food eating contestEvery July, downtown Fremont throws a multi-day street party around the baby food its Gerber plant made famous — crawl races, a cook-off, and grown adults racing through jars of pureed peas.
Fruitport once bet on a mineral-spring hotelThe Pomona House opened in Fruitport on July 1, 1871, as part of Michigan's mineral-spring resort boom; the hotel later burned twice.
Galesburg won its name at the ballot box in 1837Galesburg, a small city on the Kalamazoo River between Kalamazoo and Battle Creek, was named for settler George Gale after townsfolk voted down a rival proposal in 1837.
Gobles: a town the railroad put on the mapGobles grew up around the Kalamazoo and South Haven Railroad in the 1870s and took its name from the Goble family, who platted the village as Gobleville.
Grand Blanc means 'great white' in French — and nobody's sure who that wasGrand Blanc's name is French for 'great white,' given by traders who passed through before 1800, long before the town itself was settled and organized.
Grant: a town that borrowed a Civil War general's name from a railroad signThe Newaygo County city of Grant grew up around an 1882 sawmill and a depot the railroad labeled Grant Station — for Ulysses S. Grant, who never set foot in it.
Greenville's museum, where the Refrigerator Capital keeps its receiptsGreenville once called itself the Refrigerator Capital of the World, and the Flat River Historical Museum keeps the story — including refrigerators the laid-off workers signed.
Grosse Ile's naval air station trained American and British aviatorsThe island's reserve aviation base was dedicated in 1929, became a Naval Air Station in 1942, and later became today's municipal airport.
Hadley's old mill is now a township museumHadley's 1873-74 flour-and-feed mill, the third on its site, now anchors Hartwig Community Park as a local-history museum.
Hamtramck: a city inside Detroit that keeps reinventing itselfHamtramck is a two-square-mile city surrounded by Detroit on nearly every side. Once a center of Polish-American life, in 2015 it elected the first Muslim-majority city council in the United States.
Hartland Music Hall: the 1858 church that found a second lifeHartland's Music Hall began as an 1858 church, was bought for $500 in 1929, and became a community performance hall in the early 1930s.
Hazel Park Raceway: 69 years of horse racing, then an Amazon warehouseHazel Park Raceway ran horse races from 1949 until it closed in 2018, ending live racing in Oakland County; an Amazon center now stands on the site.
Holly's Battle Alley earned its rowdy name the hard wayBattle Alley in downtown Holly got its name after an 1885 circus brawl; temperance leader Carry Nation added to its reputation in 1908.
How a 26-person shop in Whitehall ended up in jet enginesHowmet Aerospace's Whitehall plants grew from a small 1950s startup called Misco into one of Muskegon County's largest employers, casting parts for jet engines.
How a sealed pump the size of a melon built TecumsehTecumseh Products, which moved to town in 1934, made the sealed compressors inside countless refrigerators and air conditioners, and reshaped its hometown.
Howard City: where two railroads crossedHoward City grew up around a railroad junction where the Grand Rapids & Indiana met a second line from the east, and it shared a union depot between them.
Howell Opera House: an 1881 theater with a frozen-in-time upstairsThe Howell Opera House opened in 1881, hosted speakers like William Jennings Bryan and Henry Ford, and is run today by the Livingston Arts Council.
Howell's 1906 Carnegie library — and the county archives inside itHowell's downtown library opened in 1906 with a $15,000 gift from Andrew Carnegie; it still operates as a public library and houses the Howell Area Archives.
John Ball Park: the 40 acres the city almost shrugged offWhen John Ball died in 1884 he left 40 wooded acres to Grand Rapids for a park; some leaders thought the plot was worthless, but it grew into John Ball Park and the John Ball Zoo.
Kirsch, the curtain-rod maker of SturgisCharles Kirsch founded a drapery-hardware company in 1907 that grew into a major Sturgis employer and a name found on curtain rods worldwide.
La Grande Vitesse: the red Calder that became the city's logoThe 42-ton red steel Calder on a downtown Grand Rapids plaza was the first public artwork paid for by the National Endowment for the Arts — and the city liked it so much it built its logo around it.
Lake Odessa: a town that moved to meet the railroadLake Odessa's name joins Tupper and Jordan lakes with Odessa Township, and in the 1880s Bonanza merchants moved their buildings and goods to meet the new rail line.
Lakeview did exactly what its name saysA New York settler platted Lakeview in 1867 on the west bank of Tamarack Lake and named it for the view — a plain-description name in a state full of borrowed ones.
Lawrence's Ox Roast: free beef since 1921Every Labor Day the village of Lawrence roasts beef and hands out the sandwiches free — a giveaway that started in 1921 and was revived in 1985 for the village's 150th.
Linden's pre-Civil-War mill on the Shiawassee now lends booksThe historic Linden Mills building sits on the Shiawassee River in Linden and houses the public library and local history collection; its downtown is a registered historic district.
Livingston County's 1890 courthouse still anchors downtown HowellLivingston County's historic courthouse in Howell was completed in 1890, listed on the National Register in 1976, and now houses county administrative offices.
Michigan's oldest schoolhouse hides in a state parkA cobblestone one-room school built in 1847 in Berlin Township is believed to be Michigan's oldest surviving schoolhouse, now inside the Ionia State Recreation Area.
Montrose has thrown a Blueberry Festival every August since 1972Since 1972, the small city of Montrose has held an August Blueberry Festival — a volunteer-run weekend of a parade, pancake breakfast, carnival, and contests.
Northville's Mill Race Village: a 19th-century town gathered onto one greenMill Race Historical Village in Northville gathers 19th-century Michigan buildings — a church, a one-room school, a general store — on land once home to a grist mill.
Oakland University grew from a 1,400-acre estate giftMatilda and Alfred Wilson gave Michigan State their estate and $2 million in 1957; Oakland University opened to undergraduates two years later.
Parchment is a city named after a kind of paperParchment, just north of Kalamazoo, grew up around the Kalamazoo Vegetable Parchment Company founded in 1909 — and took the mill's product as its name.
Plymouth: the windmill town that became the home of the Daisy BB gunThe Daisy BB gun started in Plymouth, Michigan, where a struggling windmill company began giving away air rifles in 1888 — and soon dropped windmills to make guns.
Portland's 1890 iron bridge still carries carsThe Bridge Street Bridge over the Grand River in Portland is an 1890 iron truss bridge still open to traffic, saved in 1990 instead of scrapped.
Quincy borrowed its name from MassachusettsWhen the community split from Coldwater Township in 1836, Dr. Hiram Allen suggested naming it after his Massachusetts hometown.
Ravenna borrowed its name from an Ohio hometownE.B. Bostwick built Ravenna's first sawmill in 1844, but the surveyor who platted the village in 1882 supplied the name from his Ohio hometown.
River Rouge's Zug Island and the mystery hum that crossed the borderZug Island, a steelmaking site in River Rouge, was traced as the likely source of the 'Windsor Hum' — a low rumble that rattled windows across the river in Canada for years.
Romulus: the township that grew Michigan's busiest airportDetroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport sits in Romulus. It began as a one-square-mile county field dedicated in 1930 and is now by far Michigan's busiest airport.
Shiawassee County took its name from the riverCounty sources preserve several translations for Shiawassee, including 'rolling or sparkling water' and 'the water that lies straight ahead.'
Sparta was almost called NashvilleSparta's early settlement was called Nashville for sawmill owner Jonathan Nash, but the name changed because Michigan already had a Nashville.
Stanton was first called FredMontcalm County's seat sits in tiny Stanton because voters moved it to the county's center in 1860 — to a settlement first named Fred, renamed for Lincoln's war secretary.
Sturgis, the Electric City, and its own damSturgis has run its own electric utility since 1896 and built a hydroelectric dam on the St. Joseph River that began making power in 1911.
Tecumseh's Hayden Mill, where Henry Ford turned soybeans into car partsAn old mill on the River Raisin in Tecumseh became one of Henry Ford's 'village industries,' processing soybeans for paint and plastic starting in 1935.
The 1800s village hiding inside Corunna's McCurdy ParkRestored period buildings gathered along the Shiawassee River in Hugh McCurdy Park recreate small-town life before electricity, on land that once hosted the county fair.
The 1881 fire that started here and became the Red Cross's first jobThe Great Thumb Fire of 1881 ignited in northern Lapeer County, burned a million acres across four counties, killed roughly 280 people, and became the American Red Cross's first disaster relief operation.
The Auburn Hills mall built as one long loop you can't get lost inGreat Lakes Crossing Outlets in Auburn Hills, open since 1998, is Michigan's largest indoor outlet center — built in a long loop with shops, restaurants, and attractions.

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