Mastigon

The Muskegon River flows through western Michigan to the lake of the same name and Lake Michigan beyond. The name comes from an Odawa word for a marshy river or swamp. French maps of the late seventeenth century recorded the river as Masquigon, one of several historic spellings used for this waterway.

In 1675 the missionary Jacques Marquette passed through the area on his way north to St Ignace. Fur trader Edward Fitzgerald arrived in 1748, and other traders later established posts around the nearby lakes. Between 1810 and 1820 French Canadian traders, including Jean Baptiste Recollect and Pierre Constant, set up posts around Muskegon Lake. European settlement expanded in 1837 as the surrounding forests began to supply a growing lumber industry on the lakeshore.