Editing Ogemaw County, Michigan (section)

==History==
{{See also|History of Northern Michigan}}
Ogemaw County started as part of the Virginia Land owned by England. After the Revolutionary War, it broke up into smaller and smaller pieces. The county was originally created by the Michigan Legislature in 1840<ref>{{cite book |author=George Dawson |date=1840 |title=Acts of the Legislature of the State of Michigan Passed at the Annual Session of 1840 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aDg4AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA196 |location=Detroit |pages=196-200}}</ref> from unorganized territory, but was absorbed into Iosco County in 1867. It was re-created in 1873, and was finally organized in 1875.<ref name="Clarke">{{cite web|url=https://www.cmich.edu/library/clarke/AccessMaterials/Bibliographies/MichiganLocalHistory/Pages/ogemaw.aspx|publisher=Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University|title=Bibliography on Ogemaw County|access-date=January 29, 2013}}</ref> The county's name is an [[Anglicization]] of the [[Anishinaabemowin]] word ''ogimaa'', meaning "chief".<ref name=Clarke/> Ogemaw's name came from an eloquent, respected Native American orator named Little Elk. One of the first settlements in the county was Ogemaw Springs, the genesis of lumbering operations in the county. The settlement of Ogemaw Springs ended when the lumber industry in the region ended. (Due to the lumber industry, railways were built to transport the lumber, and towns often sprang up along the tracks. After timber supplies in the [[Midwest]] dwindled, loggers shifted westward to the [[Pacific Northwest]] to find new sources of lumber, and many of these fledgling settlements foundered.) With Ogemaw Springs in decline, the people flocked to West Branch, causing an economic boom, including the construction of its first hotel. This created even more growth, causing many restaurants, hotels, and businesses to be built, a vast majority of which still stand today.<ref name="Ogenaw County Citizens">{{cite book |title=100 Voices Through 100 Years |date=2008 |publisher=Arrowhead Book CO. |location=West Branch Michigan |isbn=978-0-9816201-0-7 |pages=1, 539 |edition=1}}</ref>