benton harbor

Benton Harbor

city, Berrien county, southwestern Michigan, U.S. It lies on Lake Michigan near the mouth of the St. Joseph River, opposite its twin city of St. Joseph, 50 miles (80 km) west-southwest of Kalamazoo. Originally called Brunson Harbor and a part of St. Joseph, it was renamed for Thomas Hart Benton, a Missouri senator who had supported statehood for Michigan, and it was separately incorporated as a village in 1869, following a disagreement over bridging the river. The Israelite House of David, a religious sect, established a colony there in 1903. The city is also the site of Lake Michigan College (1946), a two-year institution, as well as a branch of Siena Heights University (1982).

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