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=== Little Prairie settlement === In the late 1700s, French [[fur traders]] traversed the Grand River Valley.{{sfn|Simon-Tibbe|Branz|White|2009|pp=8}} [[Lucius Lyon]], a Yankee Protestant, was contracted by the federal government to survey the Grand River Valley in the fall of 1830 and in the first quarter of 1831, the federal survey of the [[Northwest Territory]] reached the Grand River, setting the boundaries for Kent County, named after prominent New York jurist [[James Kent (jurist)|James Kent]].<ref name="HISTORY1870">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/bad0957.0001.001.umich.edu |title=History and Directory of Kent County, Michigan, Containing a History of Each Township, and the City of Grand Rapids; the Name, Location and Postoffice Address of All Residents Outside of the City: A List of Postoffices in the County; a Schedule of Population; and Other Valuable Statistics |date=November 21, 1870 |publisher=Daily Eagle Steam Printing House |location=Grand Rapids, MI |pages=114β136 <!-- |access-date = September 28, 2016-->}}</ref>{{sfn|Simon-Tibbe|Branz|White|2009|pp=12}} Lyon would also survey "Township NΒΊ VI West, Range NΒΊ XII North", which would become Wyoming.{{sfn|Simon-Tibbe|Branz|White|2009|pp=12}} The area that is now the city of Wyoming was the second location settled by European-Americans in Kent County.<ref name="cc1881">{{cite book |title=History of Kent County, Michigan: Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships |date=1881 |publisher=C. C. Chapman & Company |location=Chicago, Illinois |pages=1408β1426 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iwg_AQAAMAAJ}}</ref> Robert Howlett, Luther Lincoln, Amos Gordon and Stephen Tucker were some of the first settlers in the fall of 1832.<ref name="cc1881" /> Gordon left [[Wayne County, Michigan]] to arrive at the mission in Grand Rapids to build the first mill at Indian Mill Creek, later leading a scouting group of Howlett, Lincoln and Tucker in birch canoes down the Grand River in the summer of 1832.{{sfn|Simon-Tibbe|Branz|White|2009|pp=14-15}} The group found [[Buck Creek (Kent County, Michigan)|Buck Creek]] emptying into the Grand, determining the creek was strong enough for a mill, with many of Wyoming's first settlers establishing themselves near the creek.{{sfn|Simon-Tibbe|Branz|White|2009|pp=14-15}}<ref name="CVDS1">{{cite book |last1=Vaughn |first1=Charles |last2=Simon |first2=Dorothy |title=The City of Wyoming: A History |date=1984 |publisher=Four Corners Press |location=Franklin, Michigan |page=1}}</ref> Lincoln built the first log shanty in the area in the fall of 1832 and began to prepare his plot with livestock and crops before the winter.<ref name="cc1881" />{{sfn|Simon-Tibbe|Branz|White|2009|pp=14-15}} Lincoln and Tucker would stay at the mission through the winter; Tucker and Native Americans later constructed the first established house for his family in March 1833.<ref name="cc1881" />{{sfn|Simon-Tibbe|Branz|White|2009|pp=14-15}} Lincoln's cabin, however, was built in close proximity to the Norton Mounds and was likely burned down by Odawa natives according to settler Roswell Britton.{{sfn|Simon-Tibbe|Branz|White|2009|pp=37}} The first settlers had a successful harvest, constructing [[gristmill]]s and [[sawmill]]s on Buck Creek in a year in 1833 and by April 1834, a community called "Little Prairie" had been established.<ref name="cc1881" /><ref name="CVDS1" />{{sfn|Simon-Tibbe|Branz|White|2009|pp=14-15}}{{sfn|Simon-Tibbe|Branz|White|2009|pp=30-31}} On May 24, 1834, the first [[post office]] was established at Little Prairie.{{sfn|Simon-Tibbe|Branz|White|2009|pp=30-31}} In 1835, competing lumber mills on Buck Creek that supplied wood to [[Chicago]] β one owned by Albert and John Bull and the other by Nathanial Brown β starved the water flow to Gordon's mill, resulting with Gordon building a new mill on what is now the southwest corner of 44th Street and Burlingame Avenue.{{sfn|Simon-Tibbe|Branz|White|2009|pp=39}} Through the 1800s, Wyoming would primarily remain an agricultural location and its development occurred near transportation routes in the region.<ref name="CVDS1" />
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