The City of St. Clair

The city of St. Clair gets its name from Lake St. Clair, named by Father Louis Hennepin for the celebrated thirteenth century St. Clare of Assisi. Her feast day coincided with the discovery of the lake by La Salle and his party on their voyage in the Griffin August 12, 1679., St. Clair's first settlement began with British occupation in the territory when, in 1763, Lt. Patrick Sinclair began the building of the British Fort Sinclair at the mouth of Pine River on land, well timbered with pine, he had acquired from the Chippewas. Eventually Sinclair lumbered the pine at a mill he called the "pinery," an enterprise operated until at least 1799., In 1818 James Fulton acquired the area and platted it as the town of St. Clair. It was replatted by Thomas Palmer in 1828 and carried the name of Palmer until 1846 when the state legislature changed it back to St. Clair. Here was the first county seat (1821-1871) and here was established the first newspaper in the county, the St. Clair Whig., Enormous salt deposits lie beneath St. Clair. Noted for its early shipbuilding and lumbering, its present day industries are lead by the Diamond Crystal Salt Company, headquarters of the nations third largest salt producer., The year 1969 saw the successful completion in St. Clair of one of the country's most ambitious urban renewal projects, which revitalized the business area and cleared the waterfront for one continuous parkway includin what is, perhaps, the longest fresh water boardwalk in the world.,