Huron county has over 90 miles of Lake Huron Shoreline with more shoreline parks than any other county. The County is located right at the tip of the Thumb of Michigan. There are differing opinions of how the name Huron came to be, most agree it was a corruption of a word the French used to name a tribe of Native Americans they called " Hure " (Hurons)--meaning "head of a wild boar "-describing their wild appearance. The tribe the French referred to never adopted the name and called themselves " Wendat " (Wyandotte), meaning "dwellers on a peninsula." The county seat is Bad Axe and as the story goes In 1861, while the area was surveyed, the surveyor found a much-used axe at an old hunter's cabin and decided to label the spot Bad Axe corners on his map. The village of Elkton was named by blacksmith, W. J. McGillivray, who built the first house there and to commemorate killing a huge elk entangled in his wife's clothesline he named it Elkton. The village of Pigeon and the river were named because of the large number of wild pigeons in the area. Another town in Huron County was named by Alfred Pagett who opened a store there and named his settlement Ubley after his native town in England , but the depot sign misspelled it, Ubly and it has so remained. Huron County has large Sandstone deposits and at one time produced the largest and finest grindstones in the world in Grindstone City , also much of the rock was used to pave many of Detroit 's streets including Jefferson and Woodward Avenues.    In 1881 Huron County was devastated by fires that burned for several days, many lives were lost and thousands were left homeless and without food. It was Clara Barton's, newly formed American Red Cross that came and mounted it's first disaster relief in Huron County. Today Huron County 's rich farmland produces most of the world's supply of navy beans. And I leave you with this, Where did Baked Beans Come From? They were invented by the Native Americans and the Pilgrims for religious reasons would not cook on Sunday, so baked beans cooked the night before became a Sunday morning tradition.   With miles of Lake Huron Shoreline, ample fishing and hunting and some of the states premier walleye and perch fisheries Huron County makes a big impression in our state's resources.

Huron County Websites and Locations of Interest

http://discoverhuroncounty.com/cin/history.htm - Discover Huron County