In the wake of a fatal attack on a Grand Blanc Township church Sunday, Sept. 28, the mid-Michigan community is reeling.
The Sept. 28 mass shooting and fire at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township left at least five people dead, including the gunman, and at least eight people hospitalized, police said.
In light of the deadly incident, here is a closer look at Grand Blanc Township and the greater community.
Where is Grand Blanc Township?
Grand Blanc Township is part of the Flint metropolitan area, located about 5 miles south of Flint in mid-Michigan. It’s about an hour northwest of metro Detroit and east of Lansing.
How many people live in Grand Blanc Township?
Grand Blanc Township has a population of 39,846 people, according to the 2020 Census.
Within the township lies the city of Grand Blanc, a community of 7,784 people, per the 2020 Census.
What is Grand Blanc known for?
Grand Blanc was long home to the Buick Open, a PGA golf tournament that ran from 1958 to 2009. Its title sponsor stepped away from the tournament amid the bankruptcy restructuring at General Motors in the late 2000s. The open was held at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club in Grand Blanc. Such well-known players, including Tiger Woods and John Daly, played the links at Warwick Hills. The connection to Buick stretches to nearby Flint, once called “Buick City,” and GM’s birthplace.
Who first settled in Grand Blanc?
The area is the homeland of the Chippewa, or Ojibwe, tribe, an Anishinaabe people. Among the earliest European settlers in the area was Jacob Stevens of New York, who moved with his family to present-day Grand Blanc in 1823, building a log cabin and farm before returning to New York in 1831, according to an account of Genesee County history on FindaGrave.com. Stevens’ son started a trading post there in 1826, according to the book “Michigan Place Names.”
What does ‘Grand Blanc’ mean?
The township’s name is French for “big white,” after a “husky trader named Fisher” who indigenous people called “Grand Blanc,” according to “Michigan Place Names.”
Grand Blanc residents win big
Grand Blanch is also home to a jackpot. In January 2024, a mid-Michigan couple won a $842.4-million Powerball jackpot ticket sold at Food Castle at 3035 E. Grand Blanc Road in Grand Blanc, according to the Michigan Lottery, the Detroit Free Press reported.
At the time, the ticket marked the fifth-largest Powerball jackpot and the 10th-largest U.S. lottery jackpot ever and the first time a Powerball jackpot had been won on New Year’s Day since 1992, when the game started, according to Powerball.
The Michigan Lottery commissioner presented checks for the winning ticket to the winners’ attorney and Food Castle in front of a crowd outside the business in June 2024, the Free Press reported. The winning couple opted to send their attorney to keep their identities private.
The Detroit Free Press contributed.
Contact Jenna Prestininzi: jprestininzi@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Where is Grand Blanc Township? What to know about mid-Michigan small town
Reporting by Jenna Prestininzi, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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