Grand
Haven
History and Facts History
• Intersting Facts • Business & Industry
Grand Haven started in 1809 as
a fur trading outpost for the American Fur Company and was
called Gabgouache from the Indian word for great river. The
city got the name Grand Haven in 1835 for its sheltered port
where Great Lakes sailing ships docked. The city’s
first permanent resident was Presbyterian minister, William
Ferry who also founded the nearby town of Ferrysburg.
The
Grand Haven harbor made it a natural port on Lake Michigan
for sailing vessels. In 1839,
two lighthouses were built at the mouth of the Grand
River and pier built between them to guide ships to the
harbor. It
quickly became a major shipping port along the Great Lakes.
Singing
sands of Lake Michigan: The sands along
the shoreline of Lake Michigan will sing to you as
you walk along the water’s edge in dry weather.
The unique singing sands of Lake Michigan are found
no where else in the world. Legend has it that an
Indian couple who loved each other but could not wed,
took to the lake in canoes and disappeared. Now, they
sing to each other from the sands of the shore.
Because
of the natural pines that grew plentiful in the area, the
city of Grand Haven quickly developed into a major logging
and lumber making center with several mills. Products
from the West Michigan virgin forests where cut, milled
and shipped to Chicago and points west and became important
in the building of many of towns and cities along Lake
Michigan.
The
giant trees of Grand Haven:
When Grand Haven was first settled in the early 1800s,
the area was covered with pine trees that towered
150 to 200 feet tall. The trees were all cut down
during the lumbering days of the city and made into
beams and boards to build boats and many of the cities
along the Lake Michigan shores.
Today,
the fur trading and lumber mills are long gone, but
the town those industries helped build, Grand Haven, has
made it one of the most picturesque cities along the shores
of Lake Michigan.
The Grand Haven channel now sees more speed
boats, sail boats and other water craft
than Great Lakes freighters. And the beauty of
the Lake Michigan shoreline and river waterways
around Grand Haven have made it a major resort
and tourist area.
Longest
state coastline:
The city of Grand Haven Michigan sits along part of
the longest state coastlines in the United States.
While some people incorrectly believe California or
Alaska has the most coastline, Michigan tops them
both because the state is almost entirely surrounded
by water. Among the bodies of water making up the
coastline are Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, Lake Huron,
Lake Erie, Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River.
Designated
as “Coast Guard City USA” by an Act of Congress
in 1993, Grand Haven Michigan annually draws hundreds of
thousands of people every year to its annual Coast Guard
Festival
Visitors
to Grand Haven in June can relive some of the early days
of fur trading and the rough life on the river
during the city’s annual
Feast of the Strawberry Moon sponsored by the Tri-Cities
Museum. The museum creates an encampment along the
banks of Harbor Island on the Grand River where a living
history of early settler life is recreated.
