In the days before Europeans came into the area, tribes of Woodland Indians lived and prospered among the lakes and trees of Southeast Michigan. There is a hilly region in what is now called Lenawee County that is known as the Irish Hills area of Michigan.
It was here on the high north shore of Washington Lake that, according to legend, the great Indian Chief Tecumseh regularly met with the members of his tribe during the War of 1812. The site was next to where two old Indian paths intersected, later becoming US-12 and M-50, two of the oldest roads in the Midwest. One path was used by Native Americans traveling from Lake Erie to Chicago and the other one used by Mississippi Valley tribes who came east each year to hold powwow.