The Muskegon

by Alexander, Jeff

• ISBN13: 9780870137860
• ISBN10: 0870137867
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-10-31
• Publisher: Michigan State Univ Pr

Summary

Formed several thousand years ago, when the glaciers that created the Great Lakes receded, and later inhabited by Ottawa and Potawatomi Indians, the Muskegon River was used by French fur trappers in the 1600s. Rich in white pine, the area was developed during the turn-of-the-century lumber boom, and at one time Muskegon Lake boasted more than 47 sawmills. The Muskegon was ravaged following settlement by Europeans, when rivers and streams were used to transport logs to the newly developing cities. Dams on rivers and larger streams provided power for sawmills and grain milling, and later provided energy for generating electricity as technology advanced. There is now an ambitious effort to restore and protect this mighty river's natural features in the face of encroaching urbanization and land development that threatens to turn this majestic waterway into a mirror image of the Grand River, Michigan's longest river and one of its most polluted. Bibliography, index

Table of Contents

Timeline of Muskegon river history
Prologue : fatal attraction
Natural wonder	p. 13
A working river	p. 22
The Berlin wall	p. 36
Small wonders	p. 47
Alien invasion	p. 62
Bottleneck	p. 76
Paradise found	p. 88
Pollution revolution	p. 98
Sacred cows	p. 110
A tangled web	p. 124
Hungry water	p. 136
Fatal attraction II	p. 149
Liquid gold rush	p. 164
Epilogue : connecting with the river	p. 179
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