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About Midland
History of the Community
Midland, Michigan is located mid-section of the Michigan mitt, near the
crook of the thumb.
Together, Saginaw, Midland and Bay City make up the area commonly referred to as
the "Tri-Cities," although Midland is considered a micropolitan, according
to U.S. Census data. As far as population numbers, Midland is the second largest of the
three cities. Saginaw is the largest; Bay City, the smallest.
Midland has evolved from an Indian village to the "City of Science and
Culture." If you visited Midland 150 years ago, you would have discovered that
the riverbanks were lined with many Chippewa Indian Wikkiups, round huts made of
bent saplings covered with skins and bark. Perhaps you would have come across
an Indian hunting or fishing while others worked crops of corn, squash, gourds
and pumpkins. The thousand acres now known as the Chippewa Nature Center
originally were within the 6,000 acres retained by the Chippewa under the Treaty
of Saginaw in the year 1819. Following the era of Indian hunters, fishermen and
white fur-traders were farmers and loggers. The second largest sawmill in the
Saginaw Valley was located in Midland. What is now Main Street began as a
series of businesses along a dirt road constructed of timber cut from the
surrounding forests.
Midland County was organized in 1850. By 1874,
the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad extended through the heart of Midland to
Averill, three miles west. The City of Midland was incorporated in 1887.
In 1890, a young man by the name of Herbert Henry Dow arrived in
Midland and subsequently founded The Dow Chemical Company. His success enabled
Midland to survive the end of the logging era and to grow to its present size.
Now the heart of Michigan’s technology basin, Midland is the global headquarters
of two Fortune 500 companies, Dow Chemical and Dow Corning
Corporation, and home to the Midland Cogeneration Venture, the largest gas-fueled, steam recovery cogeneration facility in North America. Midland has
become a center for industrial innovation.
In addition to the strong economic base, Midland is also proud of its quality
education programs. The Midland Public Schools were rated as one of the top 44
school districts in the country by Expansion Management magazine. Offering many opportunities for higher education, Midland is the home of Northwood University and is located
within 20 minutes of Davenport University, Saginaw Valley State University, Central Michigan
University and Delta College.
The Great
Lakes Loons baseball team, a brand-new 107,000-square-foot
Civic Arena
with three skating rinks, Midland’s
30-mile-long, paved Pere Marquette Rail-Trail, the Midland Community Tennis
Center, a soccer complex, a Community Center, 72 different
parks and the Emerson Park and Redcoat softball complexes provide residents with many recreational
opportunities.
Photo Gallery
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