The Flat River is a tributary of the Grand River in the western part of the U.S. state of Michigan. It rises as the outflow of the six lakes (Six Lakes) system in Belvidere Township, west of Edmore in Montcalm County. It flows mostly south and slightly west through Montcalm County, Ionia County, and Kent County, flowing into the Grand River in Lowell. Other cities it flows through along the way include Greenville and Belding.
Two historic covered bridges cross the river. One, the Fallasburg Bridge, in Vergennes Township, Kent County is in Fallasburg County Park a few miles north of Lowell. The other, Whites Bridge is a few miles to the northeast in adjacent northwest Keene Township, Ionia County, near Smyrna.
There are 5 dams along the river: Greenville, Belding, Whites Bridge, Burroughs and Lowell.
It is the river named in the song "Sad Ballad of Jack Haggerty", sometimes known as "Flat River Girl."
Famous quotes containing the words flat and/or river:
“Twenty-two years ago Judge [then-Senator Stephen] Douglas and I first became acquainted. We were both young then; he a trifle younger than I. Even then, we were both ambitious; I, perhaps, quite as much so as he. With me, the race of ambition has been a failure—a flat failure; with him it has been one of splendid success.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“In order to get to East Russet you take the Vermont Central as far as Twitchell’s Falls and change there for Torpid River Junction, where a spur line takes you right into Gormley. At Gormley you are met by a buckboard which takes you back to Torpid River Junction again.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)