Cadillac, the county seat of Wexford County, was originally visited by fur traders and explorers in the 1700s. It wasn’t until 1871 when the first sawmill popped up and the lumber business began booming in the area, known at the time as ‘Clam Lake’.

The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad came through in 1872 and two years later, Clam Lake was incorporated as a village.

In a nutshell, in 1877 it was incorporated as a city and given a name change to ‘Cadillac’, after Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, who, in 1701, was responsible for starting the first permanent settlement in what is now Detroit.

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By the early 1900s, most of the timber was depleted, and with it went the lumber business.

But Cadillac persevered: in 1936, the U.S. Forest Service co-developed the Caberfae Ski Area, in hopes of boosting the economy by making the area a tourist destination. It worked. Caberfae is still around and has become the oldest ski resort in the Midwest.

One final note:
‘Sam the Bear’ was Cadillac’s favorite resident for over 20 years. She was kept in a large cage out front of Thirsty’s gas station on M-55 just west of the city. Every summer, the tourists and kids would come by and feed Sam their ice cream cones, of which she happily lapped up.

Sam lasted from the 1970s to the late 1990s until she passed away from old age.

Vintage Photos of Cadillac, Michigan

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