In the early 1800's, a village of Ottawa Indians existed a mile and a half north of the Junction of the Flat and Grand Rivers, with Cobmoosa as its chief.

• In 1838, a steamboat, the Paragon, began regular runs between Grand Rapids and Lyons which lies east of Lowell on the Grand River.  There was a landing dock in Lowell on the north side of the Grand River, east of the Division Street Bridge.
   
• Michigan’s first businesswoman operated her fur-trading post near Lowell from 1806 to 1821.  Magdalaine La Framboise spent her winters here trading with the Ottawa Indians and summers on Mackinac Island where she had a home.
   

• The original name for Lowell was Dansville, after a French fur-trader from Detroit named Daniel Marsac who arrived here in 1829, and built a small trading post south of the Grand River directly across from the mouth of the Flat.  Later, he bought eighty acres on the east side of the Flat River, platted a portion of it and called it Dansville.
   

• Henry Ford's first choice for the site of his automobile factory was beside the Flat River in Lowell, Michigan.
   
• Automated color sorting of beans by use of an electric eye was invented at the C. H. Runciman Company in Lowell.
   
• Freshwater clams were harvested from the Grand River and buttons were punched from the shells at the button factory in Lowell.
   
• The city of Lowell today, shows evidence of some of the characteristics of a small town on the one hand and qualities of suburban life on the other. Many residents find this ideal. They enjoy the advantages of living less than twenty miles from Grand Rapids, with its large shopping centers.