Ionia: Downtown could be ‘20s movie set
While driving between Lansing and Grand Rapids with a little extra time, I decided to swing north on M-66 to check out Ionia. I had heard of the Ionia Free Fair but not much else. Ionia, the largest city in Ionia County, is the county seat. The population was 13,378 as of the 2020 census. The city is named after Ionia, a historic region in Greece. Ionia was first settled in 1833 by Samuel Dexter, who recruited a group of about 63 people from New York to join him. Aided by the local Ojibwe,...
