Grand River Trail
Map of the Grand River Trail as it evolved into Grand River Avenue, one of Michigan’s oldest routes.
Grand River Trail
Before it was a road, it was a trail.
Long before Grand River Avenue ran through the middle of Michigan, it was a footpath — carved by Indigenous peoples, most notably the Anishinaabe, as a trade route between Detroit and the Lake Michigan shoreline.
By the 1820s, settlers followed the same trail westward, building stagecoach routes and early roads right on top of it. They called it the Grand River Road — a name that stuck through the mid-1800s until it evolved into what we now call Grand River Avenue.
That same path still runs straight through Howell. And we’re proud to be standing on it.
307 East Grand River Ave
GRAND RIVER SUPPLY CO.
Grand River Avenue is one of the oldest roadways in Michigan — and one of the first to stretch from Detroit to Lake Michigan. If you’ve ever taken I-96, you’ve followed its modern footprint. This corridor has always moved people, goods, and stories. We’re here to keep that going — in our own way.