Exploration by Europeans The first recorded person of European descent to travel through the area that is now Lansing was British
fur trader Hugh Heward and his
French-Canadian team on April 24, 1790, while canoeing the
Grand River. The land that was to become Lansing was
surveyed as "Township 4 North Range 2 West" in February 1827 in what was then dense forest. It was the last of the county's townships to be surveyed, and the land was not offered for sale until October 1830. There would be no roads to this area for decades to come.
Founding myth Historians have lamented the persistence of a myth about Lansing's founding. The incorrect story of Lansing's beginnings states that in the winter of 1835 and early 1836, two brothers from
New York plotted the area now known as
REO Town just south of
downtown Lansing and named it "Biddle City". This land lay in a
floodplain and was underwater during the majority of the year. Nevertheless, the brothers went back to
Lansing, New York, to sell plots for the town that did not exist. They told the New Yorkers this new "city" had an area of 65 blocks, a church and a public and academic square. 16 men bought plots in the nonexistent city, and upon reaching the area later that year found they were the victims of the scam. Many in the group, disappointed and now without funds to move on again, opted to stay and ended up settling around what is now metropolitan Lansing. The story has persisted due to a 1904 newspaper article, which cited a memoir told by Daniel W. Buck, a respected Lansing mayor and son of one of the early pioneers. His story was cited in Michigan pioneer papers and retold in newspaper articles multiple times in the decades that followed. His characterization of the city as being born from a "land scam" was incorrect, though his story had some elements of truth as well.
Origins as a town The brothers were William and Jerry Ford. Although they were originally from New York, they were well-respected businessmen who hailed from
Jackson and were instrumental during its earliest years. In 1836, they bought 290 acres in the northwest corner of Ingham County. They platted the land and hoped to build a community they named Biddle City, located south of the convergence of the Grand River and the Red Cedar River, in Lansing's present-day
REO Town neighborhood. Biddle City's plat map included plans for a public square, church square and academy square. They sold 21 parcels of itmostly to other Michiganders, not New Yorkersand buyers understood that it was not yet a real city. Unfortunately, Biddle City never took off. The financial Panic of 1837 forced the brothers to heavily mortgage the property, and the city never materialized. During the multi-day session to determine a new location for the state capital, many cities, including
Ann Arbor,
Marshall, and
Jackson, lobbied hard to win this designation. Unable to publicly reach a consensus because of constant political wrangling, the
Michigan House of Representatives privately chose the Township of Lansing out of frustration. When announced, many present openly laughed that such an insignificant settlement was now Michigan's capital. Two months later, Governor
William L. Greenly signed into law the act of the legislature making
Lansing Township the state capital. • "Upper Village/Town", where present-day REO Town stands at the confluence of the Grand River and the
Red Cedar River. It began to take off in 1847 when the Main Street Bridge was constructed over the Grand River. This village's focal point was the Benton House, a 4-story hotel, which opened in 1848. It was the first brick building in Lansing and was later razed in 1900. On February 16, 1842, Alaiedon township was split into the townships of Lansing, Delhi and Meridian (originally suggested as "Genoa") based on a petition submitted in December 1841 by Henry North, Roswell Everett and Zalmon Holmes. Henry North proposed the name "Lansing" for the township at the request of his father, who wanted it named after their old town of
Lansing, New York. The boundaries of the original city were Douglas Avenue to the north, Wood and Regent streets to the east, Mount Hope Avenue to the south, and Jenison Avenue to the west. These boundaries would remain until 1916. Lansing began to grow steadily over the next two decades with the completion of the railroads through the city, a
plank road, and the completion of the current capitol building in 1878. Most of what is known as Lansing today is the result of the city becoming an industrial powerhouse which began with the founding of
Olds Motor Vehicle Company in August 1897. The company went through many changes, including a buyout, between its founding to 1905 when founder
Ransom E. Olds started his new
REO Motor Car Company, which would last in Lansing for another 70 years. Olds would be joined by the less successful
Clarkmobile around 1903. Over the next decades, the city would be transformed into a major American industrial center for the manufacturing of automobiles and
parts, among other industries. The city also continued to grow in area. By 1956, the city had grown to , and doubled in size over the next decade to its current size of roughly . Today, the city's economy is diversified among government service, healthcare, manufacturing, insurance, banking, and education.
Notable events Anti-slavery movement In the late 1840s to early 1850s, the citizens of Lansing were unified against slavery, and the city became a secondary stop on the
Underground Railroad, as one of the last steps of an escape route that led through Battle Creek, Schoolcraft and Cassopolis. From Lansing, the route led to Durand, and then to either Port Huron or Detroit.
Major fires The
Kerns Hotel fire on December 11, 1934, was the deadliest in the city's history. Perhaps thirty-four people died in the fire, although the hotel register was also destroyed making an exact count impossible. On February 8, 1951, the
Lewis Cass Building was
intentionally set on fire by a state office employee. The following morning, the seventh floor collapsed down to the next level, which destroyed a large number of state historical records.
Elephant incident On September 26, 1963, a 12-year-old, 3,000-pound female dancing elephant named
Rajje (alternately reported as Raji and Little Rajjee, among other variations) rebelled against
her trainer during a performance in a shopping-center circus near what was then Logan Street and Holmes Road in Lansing, and escaped into the streets, aggravated by the frenzied pursuit of nearly 4,000 local residents. The incident ended with the shooting of the elephant by Lansing police. Provoked by the growing crowd, Rajje's rampage took her through the men's wear, sporting goods and gift departments of a local
Arlan's discount store before leading police on a two-mile chase in which she knocked down and injured a 67-year-old man, tried to move a car, and caused thousands of dollars in damage before being killed.
Life Magazine quoted Rajje's trainer, William Pratt, as shouting at the scene, "Damn these people [...] They wouldn't leave her alone." the
Detroit Free Press noted that witnesses cried out "Murderers! Murderers!" as police fired eight shots. Author
Nelson Algren cites the injustice and sad end of the pursuit of "Raji, the Pixie-Eared Elephant" in continuity with the ambush of
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in his introduction to a 1968 biography of the outlaws. Then-teenage Lansing residents who had goaded the elephant, later on recalled the incident with sober regret in a local newspaper retrospective in 2011. ==Geography==