Who is Cadillac named after?
Cadillac was originally named by Native Americans as “Kautawabet” meaning “Broken Tooth”, after a Potawatomie Chief that signed the great peace Treaty of 1825. Cadillac was first organized in 1872 by George Mitchell (a lumber baron) and was named Clam Lake Village. The county seat, however, was in the village of Sherman, although Manton briefly held the honor. In 1882, there was a political dispute to change the name of Clam Lake Village to Cadillac, after Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, an early Michigan explorer and founder of Detroit. Changing the name tricked the legislators and Cadillac also became the “new” county seat.
