a town in the United States of North America, capital of Kent county, Michigan. It is finely situated on the left bank of the rapids of the Grand River, forty miles from its mouth and sixty miles W.N.W. from Lansing. This is one of the most important and flourishing inland towns of the state, and a place of much activity in trade and manufactures. Steamboats run daily from this place to Grand Haven at the mouth of the river, where they meet the lake steamers. Grand Rapids was founded in 1833, and incorporated in 1850. Pop. (1853) about 5000.