Ancient burial mounds lined the river, known to the native people as the Owashtanong. The first white settlement was built in 1832, and the fur-trading post at the bend in the river, then known as Oakestown, was settled before the city of Grand Rapids with the expectation that Oakestown would be one of the area's larger cities. Plaster mining prospered throughout the area until an accident filled the White Plaster Mill with water, creating the present-day...