GRAYLING

A short history of Grayling

Michael Shoat Hartwick was Grayling's first settler. On the west side of the railroad tracks, he built a log hotel. The railroad platted out 40 acres (where Grayling now stands), naming it "Crawford". Fish swimming in the river were identified as grayling, and it is said that the residents preferred the name "Grayling" to "Crawford," and renamed the area after the fish.

Grayling's access to two major rivers (Au Sable River and Manistee River), and the presence of the vast forest around it, made it important in the lumber era. Logs were floated down the rivers to the lakes.

Grayling has had other names through the years. It was called "AuSable", "Forest", "Crawford Station", and during the lumbering era "Milltown".

The Arctic grayling that had inhabited much of Northern Michigan was eventually wiped out. The logging practice of using river beds to move logs in the springtime destroyed the breeding grounds for these fish. Before they could recover, non-native sport fish such as brook trout were introduced in the 1890s and competed with the grayling for food.

The Grayling Fish Hatchery was founded in 1914 by timber baron Rasmus Hanson (1846–1927). He hoped to restore the grayling to the Au Sable River system; ironically, its disappearance was caused, at least in part, by the massive habitat destruction caused by logging, which was the source of Mr. Hanson's and other lumber barons' immense wealth. Other famous contributors to the initial costs of the hatchery included Henry Ford, Edsel Ford, and Thomas Edison. The grayling became extinct in Michigan. Nevertheless, the hatchery continued to play an important role in natural resource conservation. In 1926, it was sold to the state of Michigan. It continued to be operated as a fish hatchery and tourist attraction until the mid-1960s. In 1995, Michigan sold the property to Crawford County. It is being operated by a privately owned fish farm, although continues to be open to the public during the summer.

Rasmus Hanson is an important person in the history of Grayling. He was born in 1846 in Denmark and emigrated to the United States some time later. At age 16 he began working in the lumber field. Two years later, E. N. Salling, Nelson Michelson, and Hanson organized the first Salling-Hanson Company. After nearly 50 years of service, the Salling Hanson Company had shut down its operation in January 1927. Hanson was a successful entrepreneur and created many businesses in Northern Michigan. Along with being one of three lumber barons of Northern Michigan, Hanson owned the Michigan Sugar Company and the Bay City Sugar Company. In 1916, he donated 13,826 acres of cut-over land in Crawford County to the state of Michigan for use as a forest game preserve and military reservation. This land became the first state-owned game preserve. The area south of Lake Margrethe (named in honor of Hanson's wife, Margrethe) continues to be used as a National Guard base that serves Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana guards. Since 1947, Grayling has been the starting point of the Au Sable River Canoe Marathon, which is held every year on the last weekend of July. This is the longest nonstop canoe race in North America.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Grayling, Michigan, revision 1378128381 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.