Ludington

Ludington, a city and the county-seat of Mason county, Michigan, U.S.A., on Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Marquette river, about 85 m. N.W. of Grand Rapids. Pop. (1900) 7166 (2259 foreign-born); (1904, state census) 7259; (1910) 9132. It is served by the Père Marquette, and the Ludington and Northern railways, and by steamboat lines to Chicago, Milwaukee and other lake ports. To Manitowoc, Milwaukee, Kewanee and Two Rivers, Wisconsin, on the W. shore of Lake Michigan, cars, especially those of the Père Marquette railway, are ferried from here. Ludington was formerly well known as a lumber centre, but this industry has greatly declined. There are various manufactures, and the city has a large grain trade. On the site of the city Père Marquette died and was buried, but his body was removed within a year to Point St Ignace. Ludington was settled about 1859, and was chartered as a city in 1873. It was originally named Père Marquette, but was renamed in 1871 in honour of James Ludington, a local lumberman.