Pioneer history of Ingham County, compiled and arranged by Mrs. Franc L. Adams, secretary of the Ingham County pioneer and historical society.

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PIONEER IIISTORY OF INGIIAM COUNTY

When the matter of good roads first came up in Ingham county
the State highway commissioner was present at the meeting of
the board of supervisors and urged the need of good roads being
built before the county's supply of material was exhausted. He
told of his surprise when after examining a piece of model road in
the far north he was told that the gravel from which it was built
came from the gravel beds of Ingham county.
Conservation of Michigan resources is one of the important
topics of the day, and it behooves Ingham county to look a "leedle
out," and conserve her gravel supply to meet the demands "good
roads" are making. Even a casual obersver can see that at the
present rate of export it will not be many years before the county
will find itself in the same predicament as "Old Mother Hubbard" with her "cupboard bare." An ounce of conservation
now will be worth many pounds of hustling when the need of
gravel becomes imperative.
Gravel mining has been one of the industries of this section
since 1866, and in the path of the miners are found fossils of interest to the scientific world. Often they find fossilized stumps
and roots of trees, sometimes many feet below the surface. From
one side they will look as though the entire stump or root was
there but in reality it will be a thin scale of stone, the rest having
become mixed with gravel, and what is left soon disintegrates
when exposed to the air.
In times past this "hogsback" was a perfect treasure house of
Indian relics, and an occasional arrow head or stone ornament is
still found there. One of the most interesting stories of this
"hogsback" is the fact that every year, before the advent of the
white man, the Indians of the state came to the part of the ridge
lying in Ingham county to hold their council meetings. Okemos, a
famous chief of the Ottawas, and the hero of many wars, was
prominent in these councils, and was noted for his wisdom and
sagacity. He was said to be over 100 years old when he died,
and some of the older inhabitants of the county remember him in
his last days.
Some years ago a human skull was unearthed in the "hogsback,"
and there was much speculation over the object, until study and
research proved that without doubt it belonged to some Indian
who had been buried there. It is now preserved in the high school
museum at Mason.