On February 9, 1847, Rev. Albertus C. Van Raalte chose a site on Michigan's Black River and founded what became Holland. Motivated in part by a potato famine and crop failures, the settlers also sought religious freedom. Other countrymen followed, leaving an indelible mark on the character of southwest Michigan. Jan Douma and Matteus Notier, Union soldiers from Graafschap, guarded the bier of slain president Abraham Lincoln. Newbery Medal-winning children's author Meindert DeJong came from Grand Rapids, as did Caldecott Medalist Chris Van Allsburg. The legacy includes Hope, Calvin, and Kuyper Colleges, the world-class Fredrik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, the Fred and Lena Meijer Heart Center at Spectrum Hospital, DeVos Performance Hall, Van Andel Arena, the DeGraaf Nature Center, Windmill Island, Dutch Village, and Veldheer's Tulip Gardens. The Dutch forefathers passed their values on to their progeny to make the area what it is today.

Wyoming, Michigan, became a city in 1959, the same year Alaska and Hawaii became states, but its history began more than a century earlier. The first permanent settlers came in 1832, and in 1848, the region split, with the northern portion becoming Wyoming and the southern, Byron Center. Wyoming flourished. The farmers came first with the businesses that supported them. Industry followed. The various gypsum mines were among the earliest arrivals. General Motors built a stamping plant on Thirty-sixth Street that helped pull the township out of the Great Depression in 1936. It was a success, so the company built a diesel plant on Burlingame Avenue. Reynolds Metals, Steelcase, Light Metals, Bell Fibre, and others found Wyoming a good place to relocate. People wanted to live where they worked, and that meant an ever-increasing number of houses were built, followed by additional schools, churches, shops, and restaurants. Rogers Plaza was West Michigans first enclosed mall. Though often contentious, the local government did its best to live up to an ambitious slogan, Wyoming: the City of Vision and Progress.

On February 9, 1847, Rev. Albertus C. Van Raalte chose a site on Michigan's Black River and founded what became Holland. Motivated in part by a potato famine and crop failures, the settlers also sought religious freedom. Other countrymen followed, leaving an indelible mark on the character of southwest Michigan. Jan Douma and Matteus Notier, Union soldiers from Graafschap, guarded the bier of slain president Abraham Lincoln. Newbery Medal-winning children's author Meindert DeJong came from Grand Rapids, as did Caldecott Medalist Chris Van Allsburg. The legacy includes Hope, Calvin, and Kuyper Colleges, the world-class Fredrik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, the Fred and Lena Meijer Heart Center at Spectrum Hospital, DeVos Performance Hall, Van Andel Arena, the DeGraaf Nature Center, Windmill Island, Dutch Village, and Veldheer's Tulip Gardens. The Dutch forefathers passed their values on to their progeny to make the area what it is today.

The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record began publication in 1873. Debates for sessions prior to 1873 are recorded in The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (1789-1824), the Register of Debates in Congress (1824-1837), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873)

Like many American urban waterways, Ken-O-Sha has been in decline for nearly two hundred years. Once life-supporting, the waterway now known as Plaster Creek is life-threatening. In this provocative book, scholars and environmentalists Gail Gunst Heffner and David P. Warners explore the watershed’s ecological, social, spiritual, and economic history to determine what caused the damage, and describe more recent efforts to repair it. Heffner and Warners provide insight into the concept of reconciliation ecology, as enacted through their group, Plaster Creek Stewards,who together with community partners refuse to accept the status quo of a contaminated creek unfit for children’s play, severely reduced biological diversity, and environmental injustices. Their work reveals that reconciliation ecology needs to focus not only on repairing damaged human–nature relationships, but also on the relationships between people groups, including Indigenous North Americans and the descendants of European colonizers.