Grand Traverse County, Michigan: History
Prior to European settlement, Grand Traverse County was part of lands roamed by the Anishinaabe Council of Three Fires (comprising the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi) tribes. The Anishinaabe call the area at the head of Grand Traverse Bay kitchiwikwedongsing (Ojibwe: 'place at the head of the great bay').
As a duty of the federal government under the 1836 Treaty of Washington, the first permanent settlement in the county was the mission now known as Old Mission, established in May 1839 as "Grand Traverse". "Grand Traverse Bay" comes from la grande traversée, or "the long crossing", named by the 18th-century French voyageurs who crossed the mouth of bay.
The Michigan Legislature separated the unorganized Omeena County from part of Michilimackinac County in 1840. Omeena is derived from an Ojibwe expression, o-me-nah, meaning "is it so?"
On April 7, 1851, an act of legislature organized Omeena County, effectively renaming it Grand Traverse County. The seat of government was designated to Boardman's Mills, a location in the young Traverse City. The future counties of Antrim, Benzie, Kalkaska, Leelanau, Manistee, Missaukee, and Wexford were subsequently attached to Grand Traverse County for administrative purposes, until being organized in their own rights. However, the act contained no provisions on formation of townships or choosing of election officials, thus Grand Traverse County had no legal government until 1858. That winter, an act of the state legislature completed the organization of Grand Traverse County and divided the county between two initial townships:
Peninsula Township, comprising the Old Mission Peninsula, and
Traverse Township, which encompassed the rest of the county.
Today, Grand Traverse County contains thirteen townships.
An 1884 article called the Traverse Region famous for "its productiveness of soil, salubrious climate and romantic scenery".
There are 12 recognized Michigan historical markers in the county: They are: