The first settlers in the area were lumbermen, brothers John W. and Humphrey Smith in 1853.

The present community began in 1857 when Enos P. Drake built a sawmill on land he co-owned with Samuel Burtch.

Asa Ward recorded a plat for the settlement, and Alfred A. Proctor became the first postmaster on March 2, 1857.

Water drains from Crystal Lake, at 799 feet (244 m) above sea level, into Mud Lake, at 797 feet (243 m), then east and south toward Fish Creek, a tributary of the Maple River and part of the Grand River watershed leading west to Lake Michigan.

This Montcalm County, Michigan location article is a stub.