The Emmet County Water Quest Geo-trail will take participants to both famous and obscure places in Emmet County to learn about locations and people that made the county famous.
This cache is part of the Emmet County Water Quest Geo-Trail. When discovering the “wet” historic places in Emmet County each cache will provide a specific answer to a question on the passport. Information and the passport can be downloaded from the Emmet County web site
http://www.emmetcounty.org/geocache/
Once 25 of the caches in this tour have been completed, the passport can be taken to Emmet County Building, Suite 178 or mailed to Beth Eckerle, Emmet County Building, Suite 178, 200 Division St., Petoskey, MI 49770 to receive a collectable souvenir coin for this series.
The Odawa people called this place Weekwitonsing, meaning “little bay place.” When the first missionaries arrived in 1829, the mission on the harbor was referred to as New L’Arbre Croche and later Little Traverse, just like the bay. In 1881, the village was officially renamed Harbor Springs to reflect its location on the deepest natural harbor on the Great Lakes as well as the numerous natural springs that bubble up along the lakeshore.
The Harbor Springs waterfront has been a hub of activity with fur traders, American Indians and explorers arriving in the sheltered harbor. Although the Odawa people have inhabited this area for centuries, the first permanent settlement was the establishment of the mission at Little Traverse in 1829 when missionaries were called here to work with the large Odawa community. The village remained primarily an Odawa village until the 1870s when Emmet County became open to white settlers. In the late 1800s industry grew up around the protected harbor and included saw mills, grist mills, factories. At the same time, Harbor Springs’ resort communities of Harbor Point, Wequetonsing, Roaring Brook and others began drawing wealthy industrialist families from throughout the Midwest.