Au Sable River (Michigan)

The Au Sable River ( aw SAH-bəl) is a 138-mile-long (222 km) river in the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. Rising in the Northern Lower Peninsula, the river flows in a generally southeasterly direction to its mouth at Lake Huron at the communities of Au Sable and Oscoda. Like the nearby Manistee River, it is regarded as a premier brown trout fishery east of the Rockies and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has designated it a blue ribbon trout stream. A map from 1795 located in the United States Gazetteer calls it the Beauais River. In French, the river is called the Rivière au sable, literally "Sand River". Historically used for transporting logs and generating hydroelectric power, the river is now popular for recreation such as canoeing and camping.

History

Locals, including native Americans used the river for hunting, fishing and as an inland link for trapping, trading, and transiting between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. In the late 1800s, the river was used for transporting logs downstream to sawmills and shipping yards in the towns of AuGres and Oscoda. After logging, hydroelectric dams were built during the 1920s to generate power. Today, recreation is the most popular utilization of the river.