Caches are along the Fred Meijer Flat River Valley Rail Trail between Belding and Lowell. Parking is in Lowell and Belding. Waypoints for those are in listed in 01 Lowell Showboat. Other than those two locations, you may be able to get away with parking on the side of the gravel roads, but no guarantees. The Fred Meijer Flat River Valley Rail Trail is 22 miles and connects Lowell to Greenville. The trail surface is coarse railroad ballast with paved segments in Belding and Smyrna. In Greenville it connects to the Fred Meijer Heartland Trail and in Lowell it connects to the Fred Meijer Grand River Valley Trail.
Lowell Showboat: Lowell History
Early Years: The earliest modern residents of the Flat River and Grand River were the Grand River Odawa, who established several villages along the Grand River. Cobmoosa was their Odawa Leader.
1806: Madame Magdelaine LaFramboise ran the first fur trading post in Lowell following her husband’s death. Thus, at the age of 26, she became the first woman trader in Michigan! She knew Odawa, Ojibwa, French and English. She employed many workers, and spent winters here trading for furs, and summers at her home on Mackinac Island.
1822: Rix Robinson takes over in the Grand River area for the John Jacob Astor Fur Company.
1831: Daniel Marsac built a permanent trading post in Lowell and married Jenute, an Odawa woman. He founded the modern city of Lowell, but it was not named Lowell until years later.
1847: Marsac leaves Lowell, John Hooker takes over the post at the age of 16. John Hooker helped his father build the settlement of Lowell. He could speak Odawa fluently and later became an Indian enumerator to make sure each Indian was given his fair share of treaty payments each year.
1855: Treaty of 1855 the Odawa moved to reservations in Mason and Oceana counties in Michigan, and later the reservation in Manistee.
1861: Lowell was incorporated as a village
1917: The name “Robert E.Lee” was stopped because of an on-line petition against confederate names.
2020: The population of Lowell was 4142. It is located near where the Flat river meets the Grand River.
Currently: Lowell is home to the North Country Trail Association. In the Lowell area trail runs through town to north along the Flat River.
Some of the businesses through the years were Clark’s Confectionary, Cigar and Postcard store, King Milling, The Lowell Woolen Mill, Lowell Auto Body, Lowell Bell Telephone, the D.G.Look Drugstore, and the Lowell Ledger.
How many languages did Madame Magdelaine LaFramboise know?(a number)
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Please be respectful of this area!
Respect the environment: Geocaching is a great way to get outdoors and explore new places, but it’s important to be respectful of the environment when you’re geocaching. Be sure to pack out all of your trash, and don’t damage any plants or animals when you’re searching for geocaches.
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So make sure you have inscribed the log!
Please re-hide this cache just as you found it!
Disclaimer: You are under no obligation to hunt this cache. You do so at your own risk. Like any outdoor sport, it carries the risk of unforeseen hazards. Use your best judgment with the environment and conditions. As conditions and cache locations may vary, it is the responsibility of the searcher to be familiar with the conditions in the area to be searched, to adequately prepare for those conditions, and to conduct oneself safely and responsibly and remain within his or her personal abilities and limitations. When and if you find a cache, you are under no obligation to touch it, reach it, climb to it, dig for it, pick it up, or even open it. Open it at your own risk. Individual Geostash and GPS cache sponsors assume no liability for events, which may occur, related directly or indirectly to your searching for a stash.