Lansing City Map Poster

About Lansing

Lansing was designated as its own township in 1827, but there is evidence of human activity in the area dating back to about 8,000 years ago. The first recorded inhabitants settled in the region surrounding Lansing sometime between 2200 BC and 1700 AD. By 1000 AD, it had become an important trading post for Native Americans and a strategic center for the fur trade. The Ottawa Indians had settlements near what is now Lansing; they relocated farther north around Grand Rapids before being forced to move west by military pressure from Iroquois invading from eastern Canada via Lake Erie into Michigan's Upper Peninsula (see Fox Wars). In January 24–25, 1779 during the American Revolutionary War on February 22-23 Battle of Flat Rock took place at present day Miller Road and Marsh Road south east of downtown where a band under Chief Tecumseh fought off Colonel John Campbell's mounted Kentucky militia who were attempting to destroy local villages while en route with supplies intended for General George Rogers Clark's army fighting against British Loyalists at Detroit during their offensive campaign against Fort Detroit .