Grand Rapids, Michigan

====Incorporation and cityhood====
[[File:MI Grand Rapids 1868.jpg|thumb|right|An 1868 [[pictorial map]] of Grand Rapids]]

By 1838, the settlement incorporated as a village, and encompassed approximately {{Convert|.75|sqmi|sqkm}}.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title = Facts and History |url = https://www.grandrapidsmi.gov/Government/About/City-of-Grand-Rapids-Facts-and-History |access-date = September 15, 2021 |website = www.grandrapidsmi.gov |language = en-US |archive-date = September 15, 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210915041459/https://www.grandrapidsmi.gov/Government/About/City-of-Grand-Rapids-Facts-and-History |url-status = live }}</ref>

An outcropping of [[gypsum]], where [[Plaster Creek]] enters the Grand River, was known to the Native American inhabitants of the area. Pioneer geologist [[Douglass Houghton]] commented on this find in 1838.<ref>{{cite web |title = Gypsum |url = http://www.geo.msu.edu/geogmich/gypsummining.html |access-date = August 20, 2017 |publisher = Michigan State University |archive-date = January 20, 2013 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130120085857/http://www.geo.msu.edu/geogmich/gypsummining.html |url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last = Lane |first = Alfred Church |url = https://archive.org/details/reportstateboar01survgoog |title = Report of the State Board of Geological Survey: Michigan |publisher = State Board of Geological Survey |year = 1980 |page = [https://archive.org/details/reportstateboar01survgoog/page/n10 3] |via = Internet Archive }}</ref>  Settlers began to mine this outcrop in 1841, initially in [[Open-pit mining|open cast mines]], but later underground mines as well. Gypsum was ground locally for use as a soil amendment known as "land plaster."

The first formal census in 1845 recorded a population of 1,510<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last = Fisher |first = Ernest B. |url = https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/micounty/ARX2230.0001.001/169?rgn=full+text;view=image |title = Grand Rapids and Kent County, Michigan: historical account of their progress from first settlement to the present time |year = 1918 |pages = 163 |access-date = August 20, 2021 |archive-date = August 20, 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210820075522/https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/micounty/ARX2230.0001.001/169?rgn=full+text;view=image |url-status = live }}</ref> and an area of {{Convert|4|sqmi|km2}}.<ref name=":1" /> The city of Grand Rapids was incorporated April 2, 1850.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.grhistory.org/id22.htm |title = Historical Info. A Brief History of Grand Rapids |publisher = Grand Rapids Historical Society |access-date = September 24, 2013 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130521084755/http://www.grhistory.org/id22.htm |archive-date = May 21, 2013 |url-status = dead |df = mdy-all }}</ref> It was officially established on May 2, 1850, when the village of Grand Rapids voted to accept the proposed city charter. The population at the time was 2,686. By 1857, the city of Grand Rapids' area totaled {{convert|10.5|sqmi|km2}}.<ref name=":2" /> Through the 1850s, the land containing forty-six [[Indian mounds]] located on the west side between Bridge Street and the Grand River to the south were sold by the United States government, with the mounds being destroyed to fill low-lying land in the area while the Native American artifacts contained within were taken or sold to museums, including the [[Grand Rapids Public Museum]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=www.grcmc.org |first=Grand Rapids Community Media Center- |title=Indian Mounds |url=http://www.historygrandrapids.org/audio/2497/indian-mounds |access-date=2022-10-26 |website=Grand Rapids Historical Commission |language=en-us |archive-date=October 26, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221026020859/http://www.historygrandrapids.org/audio/2497/indian-mounds |url-status=live }}</ref> In October 1870, Grand Rapids became a desired location for immigrants, with about 120 Swedes arriving in the United States to travel and create a "colony" in the area in one week.<ref>{{cite news |title = Immigration <!-- |access-date = August 21, 2017--> |work = [[The New York Times]] |date = October 16, 1870 }}</ref>

During the second half of the nineteenth century, the city became a major lumbering center, processing timber harvested in the region. Logs were floated down the Grand River to be milled in the city and shipped via the Great Lakes. The city became a center of fine wood products as well. By the end of the century, it was established as the premier furniture-manufacturing city of the United States.<ref name="pubmuseum">{{cite web |title = The Furniture City |url = http://www.grmuseum.org/exhibits/furniture_city |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100305141952/http://www.grmuseum.org/exhibits/furniture_city |archive-date = March 5, 2010 |access-date = March 6, 2010 |publisher = Grand Rapids Public Museum }}</ref> It was the [[Centennial Exposition]] of 1876 in [[Philadelphia]] that brought attention to Grand Rapids' furniture on the national stage, providing a new growing industry to help the city recover from the [[Panic of 1873]].<ref name=":03">{{Cite journal |last = Erdmans |first = Mary Patrice |date = Autumn 2005 |title = The Poles, the Dutch and the Grand Rapids Furniture Strike of 1911 |url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/20148725 |journal = [[Polish American Studies]] |volume = 62 |issue = 2 |pages = 5–22 |doi = 10.2307/20148725 |jstor = 20148725 |s2cid = 254436229 |via = [[JSTOR]] |access-date = August 9, 2021 |archive-date = August 8, 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210808140348/https://www.jstor.org/stable/20148725 |url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1 = Bray |first1 = Nicole |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=fawS2hCQ1F4C&pg=PA13 |title = Ghosts of Grand Rapids |last2 = DuShane |first2 = Robert |publisher = The History Press |year = 2013 |isbn = 9781626192058 |pages = 13–14 |name-list-style = amp |via = Google Books }}</ref> In 1880, the country's first hydro-electric generator was put to use on the city's west side.<ref name="hydro">{{cite web |date = September 9, 2005 |title = Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program: History of Hydropower |url = http://www1.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/hydro_history.html |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100126001540/http://www1.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/hydro_history.html |archive-date = January 26, 2010 |access-date = January 14, 2010 |publisher = [[United States Department of Energy]] }}</ref>