River Raisin

The River Raisin is a river in southeastern Michigan, United States that flows through glacial sediments into Lake Erie. The area today is an agricultural and industrial center of Michigan. The river flows for almost 139 miles (224 km), draining an area of 1,072 square miles (2,780 km²) in the Michigan counties of Lenawee, Monroe, Washtenaw, Jackson, Hillsdale, a portion of Fulton County, Ohio, and Monroe County, where its mouth is located.French settlers named it as La Rivière aux Raisins because of the wild grapes growing along its banks, since the French word for grape is raisin. The French term for "raisin" is "raisin sec" (dry grape).

History and geography

The River Raisin was used by local Potawatomi and Wyandot peoples, who used a portage between the upper river to gain access into the Grand and Kalamazoo rivers flowing west toward Lake Michigan. The river is still classified as canoeable throughout its length. But, low gradient, access issues, frequent logjams in the upper reaches and 22 dams on the mainstream limit its recreational use. The first European settlement of the river were the "ribbon" farms of Frenchtown established in the 1780s, which typically had narrow fronts on the river for access, with deep rectangular lots reaching back from the river. Now part of Monroe, Michigan, this area is still the most populous area along the river. The resort area of Irish Hills lies in the uppermost region of the watershed, which includes 429 lakes and ponds. The largest of these is the 800-acre (3.2 km²) Lake Columbia.