Newaygo County, Michigan

Newaygo County was named after Chippewa Indian Chief : Naw-wa-goo, one of the signers of the Treaty of Saginaw in 1812. Settlement of the area began in 1836 when Michel Charleau took a group of businessmen from Chicago up the Muskegon River and observed the great expanse of white pine there. The first sawmill was built by the Pennoyer Brothers a few years later at the junction of the Muskegon River, and a creek bears their name a few miles northeast of what is now the city of Newaygo.

The lumber boom in the last half of the 1800�s was very good to this area, and put the county on the map. The Muskegon River, Michigan�s largest, became the lifeblood of the area, first for transporting lumber, and later for hydroelectric power. Three huge dams were built after the turn of the century: Croton, Hardy and Newaygo. Croton and Hardy Dams remain today, with Hardy the largest earthen dam east of the Mississippi.

Newaygo County today relies on tourism as its main economic support, with agriculture and small manufacturing secondary. The Muskegon River continues to be the main attraction for summer cottage residents and fishermen, who find it nearly the best source for steelhead in the spring and salmon in the fall anywhere in Michigan. Hunting, camping and RV�ing are also excellent, as over half the county is contained in the Manistee National Forest.

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