Draft Horses for Sale near Grayling, MI

About Grayling, MI

Michael Shoat Hartwick was Grayling's first settler. On the west side of the railroad tracks, he built a log hotel. The railroad platted out 40 acres (where Grayling now stands), naming it "Crawford". Fish swimming in the river were identified as grayling, and it is said that the residents preferred the name "Grayling" to the name "Crawford," and renamed the area after the fish. Grayling's access to two major rivers ( Au Sable River and Manistee River), and the presence of the vast forest around it, made it important in the lumber era.