Click image for larger view (640 x 564) or here for a close up (1500 x 1321). A key to trails and historical markers appears below each map image.

We recently spruced up the Making of Ann Arbor site with a new design and some additional content, including a map of Indian trails in Washtenaw County taken from the 1927 book The Indians of Washtenaw County, Michigan by W. B. Hinsdale. This map and others are available on the Making of Ann Arbor maps page. Additional maps and atlases of Washtenaw county are available through the Michigan County Histories and Atlases digitization project.

It was said of Professor Hinsdale that, although he had a scholarly interest in disseminating knowledge, he exercised caution when it came to specifics. Both in the booklet on The Indians of Washtenaw County, and in his magnum opus, the Archaeological Atlas of Michigan, Hinsdale carefully fudged the locations of unexcavated mounds and other valuable sites that might otherwise become a source of temptation to souvenir collectors or amateur diggers. While supposedly the maps reflected everything the Professor knew, the actual locations may have been several degrees -- or perhaps miles -- off to one side or the other. Ergo, caution is the watchword even now to any reader who attempts a too-literal reading of this map.