Custer’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 3 old photos of Custer. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Prior to European settlers arriving in the area, Native Americans lived near what is now Custer, with a location just south of the city being the site of a battle between the Mascouten and Odawa on the Pere Marquette River. At the site, known as the Not-A-Pe-Ka-Gon Site, thousands of Mascouten were killed by the Odawa and their heads were placed on sticks, giving the river its original name, "Notipekago" or "Notipekagon", meaning "heads on sticks" in English.
The United States created an Indian reservation where Custer is located in 1855. Custer was platted in 1878 and incorporated as a village in 1895. The village was named for George Armstrong Custer.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Custer’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Custer’s history is told.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewCuster Milling Co, 1915: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Custer, decade by decade
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Custer Milling Co (1915) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (4) and the Library of Congress (2). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.