In the millennia before humans came to central Michigan, this part of our planet's surface went through many phases of development. In fact, by some accounts it hasn't always been on this part of the planet's surface at all! In the far past, this area was the floor of a tropical sea. The earliest fossil records science has discovered indicate that ancient forms of coral lived here - tiny crustaceans which cannot survive even the mildest of winters. The photo to the right shows some of the locally discovered fossils of sea life found right here in Ionia County.
Depending on which theory you accept, either the earth shifted its orbit, the continents drifted, or both, and eventually this land mass rose from the sea bottom and began to go through the seasonal changes we know today.-
Through the many ages of prehistory, a wide variety of plant and animal life covered the hills and valleys of Ionia County. There is no evidence that dinosaurs ever roamed these lands, but the remains of famous mammals such as mastodons and giant beaver have been found all across this region.
One of the most recent major changes occurred after the last ice age. No humans were here to see it happen, but scientific analysis tells us that these great ice sheets receded to the north about 8,000 years ago. The Great Lakes had been covered in ice - in some places over a mile thick! When these great sheets of ice melted away, they left behind a land of rolling hills, winding valleys and fertile plains surrounded by the deep, picturesque fresh water lakes we call the Great lakes - and in the midst of it was Michigan.