For thousands of years before the French and English set up colonies in the region, Northern Michigan was inhabited by Native American cultures and succeeding tribes.

[3] Odawa history written by Andrew Blackbird records that Emmet County was thickly populated by a race of Indians that they called the Mush-co-desh, which means "the prairie tribe".

The Mush-co-desh had an agrarian society and were said to have "shaped the land by making the woodland into prairie as they abandoned their old worn out gardens which formed grassy plains".

They inhabited areas surrounding the Straits of Mackinac, the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan, and the northern islands and shoreline of Canada along Lake Huron.

That summer and again in 1687, La Durantaye led coureurs de bois and Indians from the Straits against the Seneca homeland in the territory of western upper New York state.

From 1720 to 1722, Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix stopped at Michilimackinac and other points in Northern Michigan while seeking a Pacific Ocean passage.

The entire Straits area was officially acquired by the United States from the British through the Treaty of Paris in 1783 and settlement permitted by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.

However, much of the British forces did not leave the Great Lakes area until after 1794, when Jay's Treaty established U.S. sovereignty over the Northwest Territory with Northern Michigan part of "Knox County".

[24] Between 1795 and 1815 a system of Métis (descendants of indigenous women who married French (and later Scottish) fur trappers and traders) settlements and trading posts was established throughout Michigan, Wisconsin, and to a lesser extent in Illinois and Indiana.

As late as 1829 the Métis were dominant in the economy of Wisconsin and influential in Northern Michigan[25] in part because they were able to work as intermediaries between natives and white fur traders.

[26] Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard was one of many of John Jacob Astor's trappers and voyageurs[27] who plied the waters of the Great Lakes in Mackinaw boats and collected pelts to be sold in Europe.

[31][32] Mackinac Island continued to be a locus of trade for the American Fur Company and was the site where Army doctor William Beaumont became Post surgeon[33] in 1820[34] and began conducting his famous digestion experiments on 19-year-old Alexis St. Martin between 1822 and 1833.

Despite the presence of fur trade, US military and Indian offices, and various tradesmen, the settled population of Michilimackinac (defined as all the settlements from Saginaw to Green Bay) was between 800 and 1000 for the time period between 1820 and 1840.

[56] Increased white immigration and homesteading in Northern Michigan brought difficulties in dispatching of Native American land claims stemming from the treaty of 1836.

New mechanical tools such as steam-powered (versus water-powered) sawmills and circular saws expanded the ability to process high volumes of lumber quickly.

[71] The passenger pigeon was hunted in Northern Michigan as a source of food, but by the 1870s, a combination of increased population and economic scarcity led to over-hunting and eventual extinction.

The massive flocks of passenger pigeons stopped darkening the skies of Northern Michigan, especially after the last large scale nestings and subsequent slaughters of millions of birds in 1874 and 1878.

Sport fishing along the Au Sable River became a tourist attraction for wealthy sportsmen from Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Toledo, Indianapolis, and Chicago.

[85] Where available, hardwoods and hemlock were harvested, temporarily extending the life of lumbering in the area, especially around East Jordan, the Traverse Bay, and near Crawford County.

As passenger railroad usage ended in the 1960s (due in part to increased automobile travel), aggressive promotion of Northern Michigan by local chambers of commerce led to many of the festivals and attractions that bring visitors north even today.

Others may restrict it to the area north of Bay City and Clare, using US Highway 10 as a reference point, which roughly marks the "fingers" of the mitten-like shape of the Lower Peninsula.

A tension zone is identified running from Muskegon to Saginaw Bay marked by a change in soil type and common tree species.

[103] North of the line the historic presettlement forests were beech and sugar maple, mixed with hemlock, white pine, and yellow birch which only grew on moist soils further south.

Southern Michigan forests were primarily deciduous with oaks, red maple, shagbark hickory, basswood and cottonwood which are uncommon further north.

Much of the forest is used for wildlife game management and the fostering of endangered and rare species, such as the Kirtland's warbler – there are regular controlled burns to maintain its habitat.

Indeed, the only stable population of the rare beetle occurs along a two and a half mile stretch of the East Branch of the Maple River in Emmet County, Michigan.

The museum defines its role broadly — to preserve, protect and present history and culture closely connected with the heritage of Northern Michigan and the Great Lakes.

[129] The institution says "Our mission is to collect, preserve, interpret, and exhibit authentic articles and artifacts of art, history, and science to inspire curiosity, foster community pride, and cultivate personal legacy.

The Grand Traverse Bay area is listed as one of the most endangered agricultural regions in the U.S. as its scenic land is highly sought after for vacation homes.

Adjacent to the Traverse City Cherry Capital Airport is a United States Coast Guard air station (CGAS), which is responsible for both maritime and land-based search and rescue operations in the northern Great Lakes region.