Ann Arbor

Sister cities

• Tübingen
• Dakar
• Juigalpa
• Hikone
• Peterborough
• Belize City

History

The region was once inhabited by several Native American tribes, the most prominent being the Anishinaabe people of the Three Fires: the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi. The Potawatomi founded two villages in the area of what is now Ann Arbor in about 1774. Other tribes that inhabited the area included the Wyandots and Sauk. These peoples established several trails that converged on present-day Ann Arbor. The land that included Washtenaw County was ceded to the U.S. by the Odawa, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Wyandot in the Treaty of Detroit of 1807. Ann Arbor was founded in 1824 by land speculators John Allen and Elisha Walker Rumsey. On May 25, 1824, the town plat was registered with Wayne County as the Village of Annarbour, the earliest known use of the town's name. Allen and Rumsey decided to name it for their wives, both named Ann, and for the stands of bur oak in the of land they purchased for $800 () from the federal government at $1.25 per acre. The local Ojibwa named the settlement , after the sound of Allen's sawmill. Ann Arbor became the seat of Washtenaw County in 1827 and was incorporated as a village in 1833. The Ann Arbor Land Company, a group of speculators, set aside of undeveloped land and offered it to the state of Michigan as the site of the state capitol, but lost the bid to Lansing. In 1837, the property was accepted instead as the site of the University of Michigan. Since the university's establishment in the city in 1837, the histories of the University of Michigan and Ann Arbor have been closely linked. The town became a regional transportation hub in 1839 with the arrival of the Michigan Central Railroad, and a north–south railway connecting Ann Arbor to Toledo and other markets to the south was established in 1878. Throughout the 1840s and the…

Geography

Ann Arbor is located along the Huron River, which flows southeast through the city on its way to Lake Erie. It is the central core of the Ann Arbor, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area, which consists of the whole of Washtenaw County, but is also a part of the Metro Detroit Combined Statistical Area designated by the U.S. Census Bureau. While it borders only Townships, the built-up nature of the sections of Pittsfield and Ypsilanti townships between Ann Arbor and the city of Ypsilanti make the two effectively a single urban area. The landscape of Ann Arbor consists of hills and valleys, with the terrain becoming steeper near the Huron River. The elevation ranges from about along the Huron River to on the city's west side, near the intersection of Maple Road and Pauline Blvd. Ann Arbor Municipal Airport, which is south of the city at , has an elevation of . Ann Arbor is nicknamed "Tree Town", both due to its name and to the dense forestation of its parks and residential areas. The city contains more than 50,000 trees along its streets and an equal number in parks. Into the early 2000s, the emerald ash borer has destroyed many of the city's approximately 10,500 ash trees. The city contains over 160 municipal parks ranging from small neighborhood green spots to large recreation areas such as Buhr Park. Several large city parks and a university park border sections of the Huron River. Fuller Recreation Area, near the University Hospital complex, contains sports fields, pedestrian and bike paths, and swimming pools. Opened in the summer of 2014, the city-funded Ann Arbor Skatepark is a skatepark located within Veterans Memorial Park. The city is also home to the Washtenaw County-owned County Farm Park. The Nichols Arboretum, owned by the University of Michigan, is a…

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  65,965
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  64,739
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  57,555
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  55,118
• American Goldfinch

  Spinus tristis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  48,294
• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  46,917
• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  46,747
• Downy Woodpecker

  Dryobates pubescens (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  44,730

Largest nearby schools

• Pioneer High School
  High · ANN ARBOR · 1,700 students · 16.5:1 ratio
• Huron High School
  High · ANN ARBOR · 1,635 students · 14.5:1 ratio
• Saline High School
  High · SALINE · 1,605 students · 19.1:1 ratio
• Skyline High School
  High · ANN ARBOR · 1,315 students · 17.1:1 ratio
• Dexter High School
  High · DEXTER · 1,116 students · 16.4:1 ratio
• Saline Middle School
  Middle · SALINE · 1,113 students · 18.6:1 ratio
• South Arbor Charter Academy
  Elementary · YPSILANTI · 801 students · 20.5:1 ratio
• Washtenaw Technical Middle College
  High · ANN ARBOR · 776 students · 35.3:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 2.7 — 2026-05-04
  8 km N of Maybee, Michigan
• M 3 — 2026-04-26
  7 km SSE of Amherstburg, Canada
• M 2.5 — 2024-03-18
  4 km WSW of Millbury, Ohio
• M 2.6 — 2023-05-20
  3 km SSE of Walbridge, Ohio
• M 3.2 — 2020-08-21
  2 km SSE of Detroit Beach, Michigan
• M 3.4 — 2018-04-20
  Michigan