Gray, S.
Presented at the All Scientist Meeting (1999-07-20 to 1999-07-21 )
This essay traces the history of land use in western Michigan, defined here as the Saint Joseph, Kalamazoo, and Grand River valleys. It treats the history of land use as a function of shifts over time in economic systems—the values and behavior structuring the ways that people secure their livelihoods. The logic of treating the river valleys as a regional unit of analysis is that they are part of the Carolinian biotic province and share a common Native American, European, and Euro-American settlement history. The essay first characterizes a Native American semi-migratory, subsistence economy from the early seventeenth century on the eve of European contact. Although it proved highly durable in its essentials, this economy was nevertheless shaped from the late seventeenth century on by the Indians’ involvement in the fur trade and, by the 1830s, by the arrival of white settlers who eventually displaced most native peoples from western Michigan. In the generation before the Civil War, these settlers practiced an economy known as subsistence plus surplus. The term signals the importance of long-distance trade in this economy, yet emphasizes that production for market does not outweigh household and communal securing of the necessities of life. There were certain similarities on the frontier in western Michigan between this economy and the Native American economy as it had been shaped by the fur trade. By 1860, however, the displacement of native peoples was complete. A transportation system capable of carrying bulk goods cheaply and rapidly east was in place, and capital investments in frontier farms were sufficiently great to transform western Michigan into a region dedicated to commercial mixed farming.
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