NATIVE AMERICANS

Big Rocks
This area, known as Big Rocks, had been settled by the Pottawatomie Indians. Although most had been relocated by the 1830s the few that were here were peaceful as far as the early settlers were concerned and fished and dug clams in the river, mined coal on the river banks, and hunted for boar, deer, turkey, fox, and bear.

Legend of the Islands
An Indian legend tells of the origin of the seven finger islands in midst of the Grand River. It says that during a time of Indian wars, a mother feared her children would be captured. She put them all in a canoe and traveled down the river. She began dropping each child into the water to hid them and where each of her seven children hit the water, an island sprang up.

Read about early Settler Indian Memories.