History of Grand Rapids, Michigan :: Grand Rapids Mich Homes .com

History of Grand Rapids Michigan

Over 2,000 years ago, the Hopewell Indians, known for their large burial mounds, occupied the Grand River Valley, home of the future City of Grand Rapids..

About 300 years ago, the Ottawa Indians moved into the area and lived in several villages along the river.

The Chippewa were just to the north (the Comstock Park area of today) and the Pottowattomie were just south. They made up a group called The People of the Three Fires. When the British and French arrived, the Ottawa traded fur pelts for European metal and textile goods.

One French trader named Louis Campau established a trading post in Grand Rapids, or the area that would become Grand Rapids, in 1826. Although he was not the first permanent settler (that distinction falls to a Baptist minister named Isaac McCoy who arrived in 1825), Campau became perhaps the most important settler when, in 1831, he bought what is now the entire downtown business district of Grand Rapids from the federal government for $90. (Hence "Campau Street" and "Campau Square" downtown Grand Rapids.)

Dutch and German immigrants followed soon after. Eastern and Southern Europeans came at the end of the 19th century. Many Grand Rapidians today are of Dutch and German extraction, owing to these early Grand Rapids settlers.

The city of Grand Rapids was officially created on May 1, 1850 when the village of Grand Rapids voted to accept the proposed city charter. The population at the time was 2,686. During the second half of the 19th century the city became a major lumbering center and the premier furniture manufacturing city of the United States. The city also became a center of Dutch immigration in the 19th century. In 1881, the country's first hydro-electric plant was put to use on the city's west side. In 1945, Grand Rapids became the first city in the United States to add fluoride to its drinking water.

The Hopewell Indians in the Grand Rapids Area. The Hopewell built their mounds in Michigan from 10 B.C. until about A.D. 400. Historians believe the Hopewell are the distant ancestors of the native people who still live in Michigan. Still, no one knows why they stopped building mounds or where they went after A.D. 400.

Mounds in Michigan. The Hopewell people are gone, but 17 of their burial mounds still lie in a forest outside Grand Rapids. This group is called the Norton Mounds. Until the mid-nineteenth century, another group called the Converse Mounds sat where downtown Grand Rapids is today. But in the mid-1850s, farmers, construction workers, and curious people dug into the Converse Mounds. The mounds soon disappeared and the city of Grand Rapids was built where they had stood.

Where to take your family. The Public Museum of Grand Rapids operates the Norton Indian Mounds National Historic Landmark, a 55-acre Hopewell Indian site. Artifacts from the mounds are on display at the Van Andel Museum Center. For information, telephone (616) 456-3977.