Muskegon

Muskegon stands where the river of the same name reaches Lake Michigan through Muskegon Lake. Its name comes from an Odawa word for a marshy river or swamp. French maps recorded the river as Masquigon in the late seventeenth century, and the French Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette passed through the area in 1675.

Edward Fitzgerald arrived as a fur trader and trapper in 1748. Joseph La Framboise later established a post at Duck Lake, and other French Canadian traders set up around Muskegon Lake between 1810 and 1820. In 1837, more intensive European American settlement coincided with the exploitation of the region's extensive timber stands. The river and lake would serve a growing lumber industry, as logs from the interior were brought towards the shore.