A History of Marine City to 1885
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The land that would become Marine City was home to a changing population of several Native American cultures. An old growth forest (climax forest) dominated the land and kept the deer population sparse. Human population numbers were therefore quite low as well. European explorers encountered a series of Algonquian speaking peoples like the Fox, the Sauk (Sac) and Kickapoo. These people were forced out by the expanding Neutrals and the Iroquois. Eventually The Ojibwa (Chippewa) and Adawa (Ottawa) peoples were more dominant in Michigan. The first Europeans were, like the natives for thousands of years, merely people who passed by, traveling on the river, and they came from France. Their foothold in the new world was in the St. Lawrence River valley in the colonial towns of Quebec and Montreal.
French policy for North America was focused on three narrow concerns: religious proselytizing, trading for the lush furs the natives had and looking for a westward route to China. If you wanted to buy fur you sought the skill of the Native American hunter and as areas were exhausted of supply you moved deeper inland. If you were impassioned to convert the native population to Christianity you looked for settled communities with significant native population and they were only to be found around Georgian Bay. The easiest way to get there from Quebec was to go north west up the Ottawa river with numerous portages to Lake Nipissing and on to the bay. From there the French followed northern Lake Huron, past the straights into Lake Michigan and there was always more land, more waterways but not even a hint of Asia. Very few early explorers traveled the Lakes Ontario and Erie, Detroit River, Lake St. Clair and the St. Clair River route. So the Marine City area remained a quiet home to a small, nomadic population of Native Americans. Learn more...
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