Ancient burial mounds lined the river, known to the native people as the Owashtanong. The first white settlement was built in 1832, and the fur-trading post at the bend in the river, then known as Oakestown, was settled before the city of Grand Rapids with the expectation that Oakestown would be one of the area's larger cities. Plaster mining prospered throughout the area until an accident filled the White Plaster Mill with water, creating the present-day Big Spring Lake. Eventually, farming, lumbering, and a small oil industry replaced plaster mining as the local source of commerce. It was a destination site for shopping, restaurants, and saloons until floods engulfed the city in 1904, forcing an inland relocation.