Saginaw County () is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 190,124. The county seat is Saginaw. The county was created by September 10, 1822, and was fully organized on February 9, 1835. See List of Michigan county name etymologies.
Saginaw County comprises the Saginaw, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area and is included in the Saginaw-Midland-Bay City Combined Statistical Area, the 5th largest metropolitan area in Michigan.
Etymology
The name Saginaw is widely believed to mean "where the Sauk were" in Ojibwe, from Sace-nong or Sak-e-nong (Sauk Town), due to the belief that the Sauk once lived there. But it is more likely that the name means "place of the outlet", from the Ojibwe sag (opening) and ong (place of).
When indigenous people he met told Samuel de Champlain that the Sauk nation was on the western shore of Lake Michigan, Champlain mistakenly placed them on the western shore of Lake Huron. This mistake was copied on subsequent maps, and future references identified this as the place of the Sauks. Champlain himself never visited what is now Michigan.
History
The area was inhabited from about 1000 B.C. to 1000 A.D. by the Native American Hopewell culture, followed by the Anishnabeg. Some historians believe that the Sauk at one time lived in the area and were driven out by Ojibwe (Chippewa), before the area was first visited by Europeans.
The Saginaw region includes an extensive network of many rivers and streams which converge into the Saginaw River and provided a means for easy travel for the Native American population among numerous settlements and hunting areas, as well as access to Lake Huron. Saginaw was also a frequent meeting location for councils of the Ojibwe, Pottawatomi, and Ottawa—the Three Fires of the Anishnabeg.
What is today Saginaw County was inhabited by the Ojibwe at the time of the arrival of Euro-Americans. The Ojibwe were still the dominant force in the area in the 1820s, and in 1827 they were attacked by a two groups of Winnebago people coming from Wisconsin. The Ojibwe prevailed in this fight with the aid of local Euro-American settlers.
In 1853 the Ojibwe and Ottawa both established large hunting camps along the Saginaw River, although Euro-American settlers were beginning to establish saw mills and farms in the area by that point.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (1.9%) is water. It is part of the Flint/Tri-Cities region of Mid-Michigan. The median elevation in Saginaw County, Michigan is above sea level.
Primary rivers
- Saginaw River
- Shiawassee River
- Cass River
- Flint River
- Bad River
- Tittabawassee River
Wildlife refuge
- Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge
Adjacent counties
- Bay County (northeast)
- Midland County (northwest)
- Tuscola County (east)
- Gratiot County (west)
- Genesee County (southeast)
- Shiawassee County (south)
- Clinton County (southwest)