Saranac
Inscription
In 1836, when Saranac was settled, the upper Grand River Valley was a promising but undeveloped area. The soil was fertile; Lake Creek provided water power; and the river was navigable to Grand Rapids. The town grew slowly until 1857, when the coming of the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad made Saranac a shipping center.
Local products included such items as flour, lumber, hides, felloes, barrels, and staves. As the forests disappeared, manufacturing declined, and agriculture gradually became the dominant industry.
Location
Sources
More markers in Ionia
The Roadside Table
Saranac, MI
Here on old US-16 in Boston Township, Ionia County, the first picnic table along a highway right-of-way was placed in 1929 through the...
St. John the Baptist Church
Hubbardston, MI
Organized in 1855 to serve Irish Catholic immigrants, the parish of St. John the Baptist worshipped in a simple church on the Cowman farm...
Pere Marquette Railway Depot
Belding, MI
Completed in 1921 for the Pere Marquette Railway, this depot is typical of the railroad stations that served Michigan towns during the...
Frederick Hall House
Ionia, MI
Captain Lucius Mills, a local builder, constructed this house for Frederick and Ann Hall in 1869-70.
Ionia Church of Christ
Ionia, MI
In Merritt’s Hall on January 24, 1859, the Reverend Isaac Errett and forty-three members signed the original charter of the Ionia Church...