Map of Grand Rapids (1853)

More than 2,000 years ago, the Hopewell culture, an ancient Native American culture, flourished throughout the Grand River Basin. Around 1700, Ottawa, a native American, founded many villages along the Grand River. It was around the 19th century when Europeans began to colonize this area. The early settlers were mainly fur traders. They bought fur from Native American and sold metal products and textiles brought from Europe, so they inevitably built and lived near the Ottawa village. It was the La Franboise of Joseph Madeleine who founded the first fur exchange in Western Michigan. The exchange they built was near the current Ada. After her husband died in 1806, Madeleine La Franboise set up a new exchange to the west and north of the first one and expanded its business. Later, Franboise's company and the American fur company merged. Franboise retired at the age of 41 and left West Michigan to live in Macinak Island.

In 1825, Isaac McCoy, a missionary of the Baptist Church in Kentucky, visited the Grand Rapids for missionary work. McCoy became the first settled person in the Grand Rapids. In the following year, 1826, Luis Campo from Detroit built an exchange on the east bank of the rapid stream of the Grand River. Campo returned to Detroit once, but the next year, he took his wife with him and returned to Detroit with a $5,000 product to start a business with the local Native American. In 1831, the federal survey of the Northwest Territory advanced to the bank of the Grand River, and the area of Kent County was determined. The county was named after New York lawyer James Kent. In the same year, Campo bought 291,000m² land, the downtown area of the current Grand Rapids, from the federal government for $90, and named it Grand Rapids, which means 'the rapids of the Grand River.' Lucius Lyon, the rival of the campo, bought the rest of the land and named it Kent Village.

In the 1830s people began to move from New York and New England to the Grand Rapids. In 1836, John Ball crossed Detroit, discovered the potential for development in the Grand Rapids, and described the place as the promised land, or at least the most promising one for my operations (the place where the future is promised, or at least the most promising place I've ever made). In 1838, the village became an official village, and the village area expanded to about one kilometer from east to west and from north to south. When official statistics were first collected in 1845, the population of the Grand Rapids counted 1,510, and the village area also expanded to 4km². On May 1, 1850, the Shisei was implemented. The population was 2,686 when the Shisei was enforced. In 1857, the city area of the Grand Rapids expanded to 27km².

furniture town

the center of the Grand Rapids, 1905

It was in the late 19th century when the foundation of the present Grand Rapids town was built. Around this time, the Grand Rapids became the center of the lumber industry and furniture industry, and they came to be called Furniture City (the town of furniture). At an international exhibition held in Philadelphia in 1876, the Grand Rapids became known all over the world as a city for producing high quality furniture. The U.S. Furniture City, which started around this time, was open for 75 years until the 1960s. Today, the production of office furniture is the main thing. In the 19th century, a large number of Dutch immigrants came to this area. Many Dutch residents who live in the Grand Rapids today are descendants of immigrants who came to Japan in those days.

A transportation network was also established. In 1867, a railroad was built on the Grand Rapids. The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railway extended its course over the decades to Muskegon and North Michigan's Traverse City and Mackinaw City, with the Grand Rapids at the center, and to Indiana's State via Kalamazoo to the south and to Fort Wayne, and further south to Cincinnati. The route to Chicago was also established. In 1926, Stout Air Services, the first scheduled passenger service in the United States, connected the Grand Rapids and Detroit.

In 1900, the population of the Grand Rapids counted 87,565. In 1916, the city accepted the Home Rule Charter of Michigan Law and adopted the City Manager system, which was one of the first city managers in the United States. Even today, the Grand Rapids (the City Manager system was adopted for the city administration.

Snow Grand Rapids

The Grand Rapids are located at 42 degrees 57 minutes 40 seconds north latitude and 85 degrees 39 minutes 20 seconds west longitude. The Grand River flows through the center of the city. Since this area used to be a rapid stream, the city name Grand Rapids, which meant 'a rapid stream of the Grand River,' was given. The height of the city is 186m. It is about 50km from the Lake Michigan's shoreline. It is located about 100km west-northwest from Lansing, the capital of the province, and 250km west-northwest from Detroit. Karamazoo, another major city in West Michigan, is located about 80km south of the Grand Rapids.

According to the United States Statistical Bureau, Grand Rapids City has a total area of 117.4km² (45.3 mi²). 115.6km² (44.6mi²) is land and 1.8km² (0.7mi²) is water area. The water area accounts for 1.50% of the total area. Most of the city's water area is the Grand River.

Like Washington D.C. and Albuquerque, Grand Rapids are divided into four areas: NE (Northeast), NW (Northwest), SE (Southeast), and SW (Southwest). These area names are also part of the address. The north-south area is divided into the border of Fulton Street and the east-west area is divided into the border of Division Avenue.

climate

The climate of the Grand Rapids is a continental climate characterized by cold winter and cool summer. The warmest July temperatures are 22°C, the highest average is 28°C, and it is rare to exceed 32°C (90°F) even during the day. The coldest January has an average temperature of 4°C below freezing point and an average of the lowest temperatures of 8°C below freezing point, and days of not reaching 0°C even during the day continue. The amount of rainfall is generally average throughout the year, but it is slightly smaller during December and March in winter. The Grand Rapids are heavily snowed because the cold air from Canada is located in the lee of Lake Michigan, which increases moisture, and from December to March, 20-55cm of snow is seen a month. Annual rainfall is about 980mm and annual snowfall is about 190cm. In the climate division of Keppen, Grand Rapids belong to the subarctic wet climate (Dfa).

Kent County District Court

The Grand Rapids is the central city of the third Michigan district of the United States House of Representatives. From 1949 to 1973, Gerald R. Ford, who later became the 40th vice president and the 38th president, was a member of the House of Representatives elected from the House of Representatives. Ford died on December 26, 2006 at his home in Palm Springs, California, and was buried on January 3, 2007 in the grounds of the Grand Rapids Presidential Museum.

The Grand Rapids and their surroundings are traditionally Republican. However, contrary to the conservative reputation of the Grand Rapids, citizens tend to choose the Republican centrist group and the Democratic conservative group. In the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, the Democratic Party of Japan's Al Gore and John Kerry won more than the Republican George W. Bush in Grand Rapids alone.

Under the Michigan State Law, the Grand Rapids adopted the City Manager system in 1916. The system divides the responsibilities of the city administration of the Grand Rapids into the elected city councilors and the hired city manager. Two city councilors are selected from three districts, each with a term of four years. One of the two district members was re-elected every two years. This is similar to the rule of Japan's House of Councilors, 'Half-vote every three years.' The mayor serves as the head of the city assembly and has the same term as a city member for four years. The election of city councilors is held in odd years. The city council is responsible for the enactment of the ordinance and the employment of the city manager and other public officials.

the head office of Amway in Ada

The Grand Rapids have long prospered in the furniture industry thanks to their rich forest resources and good environment. Following this, the office furniture industry is mature today. Since its establishment in 1886, the American Seating Company, headquartered in the Grand Rapids, has specialized in manufacturing chairs such as offices, classrooms and lecture halls. Steel Case, also headquartered in the Grand Rapids, is an office furniture maker established in 1912 and operates in more than 100 countries around the world. Other prominent companies such as Heyworth and Herman Miller are based in this area (their headquarters are located near the company). The Grand Rapids also has a studio for the Uncle Goose, a long-established wooden toy that has released a number of foreign-language alphabet stacks as well as the successive U.S. president's blocks.

Besides the furniture, the Grand Rapids had auto and aircraft manufacturing. GE Aviation Systems (formerly Smith Aerospace), an aircraft engine and parts manufacturer affiliated with General Electric in 2007, has its headquarters in Grand Rapids. General Motors had a metal press factory in the Grand Rapids until 2009.

In and after the 1990s, it was the health science field that replaced these manufacturing industries and became the center of the Grand Rapids industry. Spectrum Health, West Michigan's largest medical service company with 19,000 employees and 1,500 surgeons, is headquartered in Grand Rapids. In the city there are several medical research facilities, including the Van Andersen Institute, established in 1996 as a cancer research institute, the Cook-Devos Health Science Center at Grand Valley State University and the Michigan State University Faculty of Human Medicine.

Amway also has its head office in Ada, a suburb of Grand Rapids.

a route map of the Michigan Line The Pele Market for the Grand Rapids is written in red. Blue is the Blue Water to Port Huron, and yellow is the Wolverine to Pontiac.

The airport, which serves as the gateway to the Grand Rapids, is located about 11km southeast of downtown Gerald R. Ford International Airport (IATA: GRR). The airport is manned by Midwest Airlines, including three major companies (American Airlines, United Airlines, and Delta Air), and is reachable via each airline's hub airport.

At the east side of the downtown, the interstate expressway, I-196, diverges from the I-96 Main Line and runs through the downtown east and west. The I-96 Main Line runs north of downtown and leads to Muskegon, a town on the Lake Michigan coast. On the other hand, I-196 turns southwestward past downtown and south along Lake Michigan, joins I-94 at Benton Harbor and leads to Chicago. To the east of the Grand Rapids, I-96 leads southeast to Lansing and Detroit, and acts as the state's main artery. National Route 131, a highway standard running north-south through downtown, runs through Kalamazoo. On these expressways, there are medium and long-distance buses operated by Greyhound and its affiliated companies.

In the city there is a station called Amtrak, which serves as the terminal of the middle-distance train Pelle Marquette from Chicago. The Pele Market is the shortest of three medium-distance trains called the Michigan Services, which run from Chicago to Michigan state, and runs between the Chicago Grand Rapids for about four hours. The Pele Market runs for Chicago and the Grand Rapids, one for each day.

Public transportation in the city is covered by the Inter-Urban Transportation Partnership (IC), or the bus network operated by The Rapid (The Rapid). The Rapid has Route 27 and runs buses not only in Grand Rapids but also in neighboring suburban cities and Grand Valley State University as the name of the inter-urban indicates. There is also a bus called DASH in downtown. This stands for Downtown Area SHuttle. The bus has three routes, all of which connect the parking lot and downtown areas of the city.

Grand Valley State University

12 miles (about 19km) west of the center of the Grand Rapids, and Grand Valley State University has a 1,304 acre (about 5,341,000m²) campus in Allendale. Founded in 1960, Doshisha University has 82 departments and 30 graduate schools, with about 21,000 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. The sport team of the school, Lacers, belongs to NCAA's Division II, and takes part in nine men's and 11 women's events.

The city of Grand Rapids has the Christian liberal Arts College, which is rated within the top 120th place among the liberal arts colleges across the United States, including the Reformed Church-line Calvin University with the name of Jean Calvin in its school name, the Catholic Aquinas University, the Unreligious Cornstone University with the Grand Rapids Theological School, the Bible University of the Fundamentalist Grace, and the University of the Reform Church with the name of Abraham Kuiper in its school name.

The K-12 course of the Grand Rapids is mainly covered by public schools run by the Grand Rapids Public School District. The school district has about 1,400 teachers and about 17,000 children and students.

Scenic and cultural facilities

Rosa Parks Circle

Rosa Parks Circle, located in downtown Grand Rapids, is named after Rosa Parks, known for the Montgomery Bus Boycott incident, which triggered the Civil Rights Movement in the south. The Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, the Devos Place Convention Center and the multipurpose indoor stadium, Van Anderina, are located around the station. These three buildings are connected by an indoor communication passage called Skyway. In the winter, the Rosa Parks Circle is provided with a link to ice skating.

Fish trails and walkways are provided on the Grand River running through the city. Along the river, there are mounds along which the Hopewell people buried. On the west side of the city is John Ball Park, which has a zoo. To the northeast of the city is the Bellknap Hill Hill, overlooking the streets of the Grand Rapids.

The Grand Rapids is the center of Western Michigan culture and has many museums and art museums. The Van Ander Museum Center (Grand Rapids Public Museum), which opened in 1854, is one of the oldest museums in the United States. The museum has a permanent exhibit of the Grand Rapids and other historical exhibits of the surrounding area as well as various historical exhibits of the world as an event. The museum also has a planetarium. The museum was built in 1994 on the west bank of the Grand River.

Gerald R. Ford Museum

The President's Museum of Gerald R. Ford, located in the northwestern part of downtown, exhibits the history of Ford's presidency and the highlights of his life. Unlike other presidential museums, the Presidential Museum of Gerald R. Ford does not have a presidential library. The President's Library of Gerald R. Ford is built on the campus of Michigan University, the mother school of Gerald R. Ford in Anabar. Ford, who died at his home in Palm Springs, California at the end of 2006, is buried on the grounds of the Presidential Museum.

The Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, located in downtown Tokyo, not only exhibits works of art, but also has movie theaters, as well as a studio for plastic sculptures. The Grand Rapids Museum is located in downtown, adjacent to the southeast of Rosa Parks Circle. The museum is permanently exhibiting its designs and photographs, as well as works of art from the 19th and 20th centuries. The library also has a library, which contains paintings, sculptures, photographs, designs, and books on modernism in the U.S. and Europe.

Mayer May's House

More than 1,000 Victorian historic buildings stand in the Heritage Hill district, which is also designated as a National Register of Historic Places, east of downtown. Among them, the house of Mayer May, a local merchant, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1908. May's house was restored in 1985 by the Steel Case Corporation and became a free museum. Further east of the Heritage Hill area is the Welsh Street Theater, one of the most famous historic buildings of the Grand Rapids.

Arts and events

La Grande Bites

After Alexander Carder made a stavel (abstract sculpture) called La Grande Vitesse in the Vanderberg Plaza in 1969, an art festival is held annually in downtown Grand Rapids. On the first weekend in June, the streets around the Bandenberg Plaza are closed, and events related to art such as free concerts, performance and sales are held. Other festivals are held at the Bandenberg Plaza during the summer period.

The summer of the Grand Rapids ends with the celebration on the Grand on the weekend of Labor Day. Free concerts are also held at the event, and the largest fireworks display in West Michigan is held, and some of the stores are opened. The Celebration on the Grand is all managed by volunteers. Management funds are collected through corporate support and personal donations. Also, the proceeds from sales of volunteer staff are used for management funds.

In 1973, an event titled Sculpture off the Pedestal (sculpture outside the sidewalk) was held in Main Street America of the Grand Rapids. The event, which brings together 13 world-famous artists, is a sculpture of the street, as its name suggests. The event has been funded by the National Art Support Association and has been supported by the state's Bureau of Arts for education, as well as by individual, corporate and industry-level cooperation. The proceeds from various events were also used for management funds. The management of the event by volunteers and the provision of accommodation to artists by local residents all show that the event was held closely to the community.

sport

Van Anderina

The Grand Rapids do not have a major professional sports team, but they have two lower league teams. The West Michigan White Caps, a baseball team in the Minor League (Class A) under the Detroit Tigers, is based in Fifth Third Ball Park located in Comstock Park in the north. AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins, a partner with Detroit Red Wings, is based in Van Ander Arena located downtown.

Every May, the Fifth Third Bank sponsors a citizen marathon called Fifth Third River Run. The race will be held in three courses: 25km, 10km and 5km. In the junior division for children aged 5-13, the program is conducted on three courses, namely, 5 km, 1 mile (1.6 km) and 1/2 mile (800 m). The main race at 25km is the open division that is indiscriminate, as well as the division by weight and age. The race of the wheelchair handcycle is also performed on the same course as the 25km. In the 5-km course, there is also a free-style walk section where you can take part in roller blades, skateboards, and with dogs as well as regular races.

urban population

The population of each of the counties that form the Grand Rapids' metropolitan area and the broader metropolitan area is as follows (National Census of 2010).

Grand Rapids Wyoming Metropolitan Area

Grand Rapids Wyoming Muskegon Metropolitan Area

urban population transition

The population transition from 1850 to 2010 in Grand Rapids is shown below in graphs and charts.

The Grand Rapids has established a sister-city relationship with the following five cities.

• Omihachiman City (Japan, Shiga Prefecture)
• Ga District (Ghana)
• Zapoppan, Mexico
• Bielsco-Biawa (Poland)
• Perugia (Italy)

• Gerald R. Ford: 38th President.
• Mrs. Betty Ford-Gerald R. Ford.
• Roger Chaffee - Astronaut Died in the Apollo 1 accident.
• Stewart Edward White: Author, full-length novelist.
• Leonard SCHROEDER: A playwright who was on friendly terms with Yukio MISHIMA.

• Grand Rapids official website
• Convention and Visitors Bureau
• Downtown Grand Rapids
• Grand Rapids Public Library
• Grand Rapids Pundit
• Grand Rapids Historical Commission's Online Grand Rapids History Archive
• Grand Valley State University
• Grand Rapids Polish Heritage Society
• Grand Rapids, Michigan - City-Data.com
• Grand Rapids, MI - Yahoo!Map Map