River Raisin

The River Raisin is a river in southeastern Michigan, United States that flows through glacial sediments into Lake Erie. The area today is an agricultural and industrial center of Michigan. The river flows for almost 139 miles (224 km), draining an area of 1,072 square miles (2,780 km) in the Michigan counties of Lenawee, Monroe, Washtenaw, Jackson, Hillsdale, a portion of Fulton County, Ohio, and Monroe County, where its mouth is located. French settlers named it as La Rivière aux Raisins because of the wild grapes growing along its banks, since the French word for grape is raisin. The French term for "raisin" is "raisin sec" (dry grape).