MUSKEGON, mils'ke'gon, Mich.7cit; county-seat of Muskegon County, at the mouth of the Muskegon River, on Muskegon Lake, and on the Grand Rapids and Indiana, the Grand Trunk, the Pere Marquette, and the Grand Rapids, Grand Haven and Muskegon Electric railroads, about 95 miles northwest of Lansing and 38 miles northwest of Grand Rapids. Lake Muskegon, upon which the city is situated, is connected with Lake Michigan by a channel 300 feet wide and of sufficient depth for large ves sels. This gives the. city an excellent harbor for lake steamers, which connect it directly with all the important lake ports. The harbor is clear of ice all the year. Muskegon was first settled in 1834, although a temporary trading post was established here in 1812. It was.in corporated as a village in 1861 and chartered as a city in 1869. The chief manufactures are furniture, curtain rollers, refrigerators, flour, beer, knit-goods, paper, pianos, iron products, automobile engines (Continental) and auto parts, many large foundries in malleable steel and gray iron products, electric cranes, leather and cutlery. It has a large trade in lumber, the
manufactures of the city, fruit, celery, vege tables and farm products. The city has been greatly favored by the numerous donations of one of its own citizens. He has presented a public library, a gymnasium, an art gallery, a manual training school, an endowed hospital and a square upon which has been erected a soldiers' monument, and several bronze statues. The government is vested in a mayor, who holds office one year, and a council. The waterworks are owned and operated by the city. Pop. 35,765.