It is served by the Michigan Central, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, the Grand Rapids & Indiana, the Kalamazoo Lake Shore & Chicago, and the Chicago Kalamazoo & Saginaw railways, and by interurban electric lines.
Kalamazoo was settled in 1829, was known as Bronson (in honour of Titus Bronson, an early settler) until 1836, was incorporated as the village of Kalamazoo in 1838, and in 1884 became a city under a charter granted in the preceding year.
West of the divide and south of the depression, south-west Michigan is occupied by the valleys of the St Joseph, Kalamazoo and Grand rivers, by the gently rolling uplands that form the parting divides between them, and by sand dunes, which here and there rise to a height of from loo to zoo ft.
Most of the larger rivers of the state - the Muskegon, Grand, St Joseph, Manistee and Kalamazoo - are in the west portion of the lower peninsula.
Kalamazoo, Jackson, Washtenaw, Lenawee, Ingham, Bay and Muskegon are the leading celery-producing counties; the peppermint district is in the south-west corner of the state; and market gardening is an important industry both in the south-west and in the south-east counties.