05/15/2026
Did you know that long before Iosco County was established, Native communities lived along the Au Sable River for generations?
The people living in this region were primarily Ojibwe (Chippewa), part of the larger Anishinaabe peoples of the Great Lakes. The Au Sable River and nearby Lake Huron shoreline provided food, transportation, trade routes, and seasonal gathering places. Families hunted deer and small game, fished the river and lake, harvested wild plants and berries, and traveled by canoe through an extensive network of waterways across northern Michigan.
When the Treaty of Saginaw was signed in 1819, the treaty specifically mentioned Native settlements near the Au Sable River. One section reserved “eight thousand acres, on the east side of the river Au Sable, near where the Indians now live.” This tells us there was already an established Native community in the area at the time the treaty was negotiated.
Early settlers and lumbermen later described Native camps and villages along the Au Sable and Tawas Bay region throughout the mid-1800s. Many Ojibwe families continued to live, hunt, fish, guide travelers, and work in the growing lumber communities even after much of the land had been ceded to the United States. Here seen is a picture of Chief David Shoppenagon who led his tribe in Iosco County.
The history of Iosco County did not begin with settlement or lumbering — it began thousands of years earlier with the Native peoples who called this region home.
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