The Clay Morainic District was originally dominated by forests of oak and hickory. Several kinds of oaks, white ash, and several species of hickories, with shag-bark most characteristic, were most abundant. Mixed with these were elm, beech, sugar maple, black walnut, and butternut. On the higher ground many stands of quaking aspen were found. The forest was quite dense and little underbrush normally occurred. Tamarack bogs were common, and a small stand of black spruce occurred at the edge of Independence Lake. There are few flood-plains along the Huron River in this district, but along the river's edge were a few cottonwoods and sycamores, and many willows, some of large size. On the steep bluffs along the river was often a heavy growth of red cedar; and some large areas of procumbent juniper occurred. In this district were several open, level, sandy plains covered with a scattered growth of white and bur oaks and an undergrowth of hazel brush. These were known to the pioneers as "oak openings" or "plains." Lodi Plains in Lodi Township, Bur Oak Plains in Manchester Township, Sharon Plains in Sharon Township, and Boyden's Plains in Webster Township were the largest of these natural openings in Washtenaw County. On the low lands of the Lake Plain District great forests of black ash, elm, whitewood, soft maple, red-bud, swamp oak, and bur oak were found by the early settlers. Large sycamore trees were found along the river banks, these following the Huron River up a short distance beyond Ann Arbor and occurring all along the Raisin and Saline rivers. The paw paw and pin oak were found rarely in the southeastern part of the county. Along the small streams in this district were extensive marshes which were evidently old beaver meadows. About the edges of the marshes were fringes of tamaracks. At the beginning of the nineteenth century Washtenaw County was an unbroken wilderness, and deer, wolves, bear, and other large and small fur-bearing animals were abundant. A few white trappers were in the region, and the Indians frequently passed through on the old Tecumseh Trail to Detroit, where they went to trade. In 1809 three Frenchmen established a trading-post at Ypsilanti, where the Tecumseh Trail crossed the Huron River, and for several years they traded here with the Indians. In 1823 the first permanent settlement in the county was made by Benjamin Woodruff and two others at Woodruff's Grove, not far from the present site of Ypsilanti. A settlement was made at Ann Arbor in 1824, and many pioneers arrived in the county during the next few years.