By 1831, early inhabitants like Linus Jacox, Butler Holcomb, John and Thomas Beardslee and Melvin Door established homesteads, and it was not long before more settlers from New York and New Jersey arrived.

The Clarks built a sawmill and gristmill, started a fish hatchery, and opened a general store.

Once the railroad was established in 1851, tourists from Detroit and Pontiac discovered Clarkston's lakes, farms and woodlands.

[4] The expanding national highway system brought I-75 through the Clarkston area in 1962, spurring both business and residential development.

Many farms gave way to subdivisions and strip malls as the Clarkston area continued evolving into a northern Detroit suburb.