Marine City, Michigan

Marine City is a city in St. Clair County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Located on the west bank of the St. Clair River, it is one of the cities in the River District north of Detroit and south of Lake Huron. In the late 19th century, it was a major center of wooden shipbuilding and also for lumber processing.The population was 4,248 at the 2010 census. The city features auto ferry service to Sombra, Ontario, Canada across the river.GeographyAccording to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.46sqmi, of which 2.15sqmi is land and 0.31sqmi is water.It is considered to be part of the Thumb of Michigan, which in turn is a subregion of the Flint/Tri-Cities.Marine City can also be considered as in the Blue Water Area, a subregion of the Thumb.HistoryThe area of Marine City had been Ojibwa territory for centuries before the first European contact. Beginning in the 17th century, French trappers and missionaries entered the territory, followed by settlers in the colonial period on both sides of the Detroit and St. Clair rivers. Farmers developed long, narrow plots that were laid out in the typical rectangular shape of colonial French, with the narrow end along the riverfront. The first Catholic Church was built by French Catholics at Catholic Point, where they had bought land before the United States was formed. French Canadians also lived on the other side of the river in a small farming community known as Petite Côte.