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Your destination - Ann Arbor
Located in Southeast Michigan, Ann Arbor is just 45 miles west of Detroit and 35 miles north of
the Ohio border. Some very historic and fast-growing towns surround the city. A pleasant drive
along country roads in any direction will lead to one town after another. Bridgewater, Chelsea,
Dexter, Manchester, Milan and Saline are all within 30 minutes of the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area.
Ann Arbor is also home to the University of Michigan, one of the country's top Universities. It
shapes the composition of the city's economy, population and cultural awareness.
There is more to this county than meets the eye, so check out our weather, history, communities
and organizations right here.
In 1823, a group of pioneers passed through a fur trading post known as Detroit, and pushed on
along the banks of the Huron River in search of a location for a new frontier community. Among
the settlers was a Virginian named John Allen and fellow pioneer, Elisha Rumsey. Some forty
miles west of Detroit, in the slopes that bounded the Huron River, the pioneers established
their settlement. On February 12, 1824, they registered their claims in Detroit, Allen for 480
acres and Rumsey for 160, each paying the prescribed price of $1.25 per acre. On March 6th of
the same year, Governor Cass designated Ann Arbor as the county seat for Washtenaw County. By
May of 1824, a name had been chosen for the town and brings us to the point of the two theories
as to how Ann Arbor got its name.
It is generally agreed that because the wives of the two founders were named Ann and Mary Ann,
respectively, the town was named, in part, for them but here the theories part. The first
theory views the wives enlarging and beautifying the wild grape arbor on the bank of a creek
where they spent long afternoons together knitting, mending and eventually the whole settlement
was called Ann Arbor.
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