Kalamazoo, MI news and local guide

Titus Bronson of Connecticut settled there in 1829, and the town was first named Bronson for him. In 1836 it was renamed Kalamazoo after the river, a name the county had taken in 1830. The river's Algonquian name has been said to mean "boiling water," "reflecting river," "it smokes" or "otters beneath the surface," but the scholar Virgil J. Vogel dismissed these as absurd and favored "it goes fast" or "deep, still water," noting that parts of the river fit both. Early spellings include Kikanamaso in 1760 and Ke-kal-i-ma-zoo in 1821. The unusual name has become shorthand for a faraway place, as in "from Timbuktu to Kalamazoo," and local shirts read "Yes, there really is a Kalamazoo." Sources Wikipedia: Kalamazoo, Michigan