The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗In the early 19th-century Maple Rapids was a site where Maketoquit and his large band of Ottawa processed maple sugar, although their main base was further east in modern Shiawassee County, Michigan.
The community was named after the rapids on the Maple River by George Campau, (brother of Louis, founder of Grand Rapids), in 1826 when he built a trading post here. In 1852, William Hewitt built a dam, a sawmill and a store, platted the land and became the first postmaster. The town was incorporated as a village in 1881 during the lumber boom.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Start Maple Rapids’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Maple Rapids’s history is told.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Maple Rapids, decade by decade
2000
Nothing in Maple Rapids is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Maple Rapids has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is St. John the Baptist Catholic Church Complex in North Plains, 8.3 miles away.
Maple Rapids and the nearest listed places
Closest to Maple Rapids
How a place gets listed
Then & now
When neighbors add old photos, retakes from the same spot appear here side by side.
Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (4). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.