Ann Arbor is a college town and the county seat of Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States.[7] The 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the fifth-most populous city in Michigan.[8] It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor metropolitan area, which encompasses all of Washtenaw County and had 372,258 residents in 2020. Ann Arbor is also included in the Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor combined statistical area and the Great Lakes megalopolis.
Ann Arbor was founded in 1824 by John Allen and Elisha Rumsey.[9][10] It was named after the wives of the village's founders, both named Ann, and the stands of bur oak trees they found at the site of the town.[11] The University of Michigan was established in Ann Arbor in 1837,[12] and the city's population grew at a rapid rate in the early to mid-20th century.[13]
The city is currently home to the University of Michigan which significantly shapes the city's economy, employing about 30,000 workers which includes about 12,000 in its medical center.[14] Ann Arbor's economy is also centered on high technology, with several companies drawn to the area by the university's research and development infrastructure.[15] The city has been a center for progressive politics as well as several social and religious movements.[16]
The lands of present-day Ann Arbor were part of Massachusetts's western claim after the French and Indian War (1754–1763), bounded by the latitudes of Massachusetts Bay Colony's original charter, to which it was entitled by its interpretation of its original sea-to-sea grant from The British Crown. Massachusetts ceded the claim to the federal government as part of the Northwest Territory after April 19, 1785.[17][18]
In about 1774, the Potawatomi founded two villages in the area of what is now Ann Arbor.[19]
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.[20][21] Allen and Rumsey decided to name it for their wives, both named Ann, and for the stands of bur oak in the 640 acres (260 ha) of land they purchased for $800 from the federal government at $1.25 per acre.[11] The local Ojibwa named the settlement kaw-goosh-kaw-nick, after the sound of Allen's sawmill.[22]
Ann Arbor became the seat of Washtenaw County in 1827[23] and was incorporated as a village in 1833.[24] The Ann Arbor Land Company, a group of speculators, set aside 40 acres (16 ha) 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.[25]
Since the university's establishment in the city in 1837, the histories of the University of Michigan and Ann Arbor have been closely linked.[26] 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.[27] Throughout the 1840s and the 1850s settlers continued to come to Ann Arbor. While the earlier settlers were primarily of British ancestry, the newer settlers also consisted of Germans, Irish,