Web Design in Thornapple, MI

Web Design Services in Thornapple, Michigan

AppWT Web & AI Solutions has been providing exceptional web design and digital marketing services to Thornapple businesses since 1997. Located in Barry County, Thornapple is home to approximately 7,882 residents and a thriving business community.

About Thornapple, Michigan

Thornapple Township fills the extreme northwest corner of Barry County, where the north-flowing Thornapple River cuts a narrow valley through old glacial swell-and-swale country and a former tallgrass prairie. Its one incorporated village, Middleville, grew from a trading post on an Odawa footpath into Barry County's second-largest municipality and the site of the county's single largest employer. With 9,331 residents in 2020 it is the most populous township in Barry County, and much of it now serves as a bedroom community for metro Grand Rapids, 22 miles up M-37.

History of Thornapple

• Michigan's legislature formally organized Thornapple Township on March 6, 1838. As created it also contained present-day Irving, Rutland and Yankee Springs townships, all three of which were set off in 1839.
• In spring 1834 the French trader Louis Moreau and his 19-year-old assistant Robert Scales of Kentucky built the township's first trading post and inn, Moreau's Trading Block, on the old Indian 'Gull Trail' near the Native village. A State of Michigan historic plaque marks the approximate site near the southeast corner of Adams and Norris Roads.
• Calvin G. Hill (1786-1867), a New York native, became the first permanent white settler in the fall of 1834, buying 400 acres on both sides of the Thornapple River. He was elected the first Supervisor of Barry County in 1836, the first Supervisor of Thornapple Township in 1838, and served as Middleville's first postmaster in 1843.

Landmarks and Places in Thornapple

• The Thornapple River, its Middleville dam and the Mill Pond, all in the middle of the village. The river is a nationally known smallmouth bass stream.
• The Paul Henry-Thornapple Trail, paved on the old railroad bed and running roughly 3.5 miles southeast toward the hamlet of Irving, with Middleville as its trail town anchor.
• Stagecoach Park, laid out along the riverfront where the three-story Keeler factory stood until it was razed in the early 1990s.

The Thornapple Economy

• Bradford White Corp., the water heater manufacturer on Lafayette Street, is the largest single employer in Barry County. It descends from White Products Corp., which moved to the old Keeler plant from Lansing in the 1940s and became the largest economic stimulus in the village's industrial history.
• Keeler Brass Company was formed in Middleville in 1894 by the four Keeler brothers after their first venture failed in the Panic of '93. It moved to Grand Rapids in 1900 and grew into a large manufacturer there.
• The old Keeler plant on the riverbank later housed the Warren Featherbone Company (from April 1901), the Globe Knitting Mill, Liebler Shoe Manufacturing Co. and White Products.

Community Life in Thornapple

• Middleville Heritage Days began in 1990 as a Thornapple Heritage Association event and is now a community-wide celebration with its own planning organization, generally held on the second Friday and Saturday in September.
• Middleville Market on Main runs weekly through the summer, paired with the Riverbank Music Series of free outdoor concerts.
• The village hosts the National 24 Hour Challenge, a long-distance endurance cycling event.

Local reference: en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org