The Grand River is a river in the southwestern portion of the southern peninsula of Michigan, United States, that flows into Lake Michigan's southeastern shore. It is the longest river in the U. S. state of Michigan, running 252 miles from its headwaters in Hillsdale County on the southern border north to Lansing and west to its mouth on the Lake at Grand Haven. Native Americans who lived along the river before the arrival of the French and British called the river O-wash-ta-nong, meaning "Far-away-water'", because of its length; the so named Grand Rapids, located in what is today the namesake city, were a mile-long, 300 yards wide and 10-15 feet-tall rapids for which the river was famous. These were submerged following the construction of numerous dams, starting in 1835, flooding of areas behind the dams; the river has not had any rapids for nearly a century. The Grand River rises in Somerset Township in Hillsdale County and Liberty Township in Jackson County, flows through Jackson, Eaton, Ionia and Ottawa counties before emptying into Lake Michigan].

The river runs through the cities of Jackson, Eaton Rapids, Grand Ledge, Ionia, Grand Rapids, Grand Haven. The Grand River is one of three major tributaries of Lake Michigan, including the Fox River on the western shore, Kalamazoo River on the southeastern shore, it falls in elevation from 1260 ft. in the highlands of its headwaters to 577 ft. at its mouth on Lake Michigan. Its waters drain northward through the lake south and east through the Great Lakes waterways into the St. Lawrence River, which flows northeasterly into the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the Atlantic Ocean; the Grand River discharges an average 3,800 ft³/s. Its watershed is the second-largest in the state, draining an area of 5,572 square miles, including 18 counties and 158 townships. Much of the basin is flat, it contains many swamps and lakes; the basin is composed of four sub-basins: Upper Grand, Lower Grand and Maple, where the four major tributaries flow: the Flat, Rogue and Maple rivers. Tributaries of the river include: Portage River, Red Cedar River, Looking Glass River, Maple River, Bellamy Creek, Flat River, Thornapple River, Rogue River, Coldbrook Creek, Plaster Creek, Bass River, Crockery Creek.

There are fourteen dams on the main branch of the Grand River. Some 218 dams were built on its tributaries. 228 of these dams are registered with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. The main branch dams are:lower Grand River Grand Rivermiddle Lyons Grand Ledge Portland North Lansing Webber upper State Street Moore's Park Sanitation Smithville headwaters Liberty Mills Crystal Lake Mirror Lake Lake LeAnn North Lake LeAnn South It is estimated that 22% of the pesticide usage in the Lake Michigan watershed occurs in the Grand River drainage, which accounts for only 13% of the lake's total watershed; the river is a trout and salmon stream for much of its length. As the glacial ice receded from what is the central Lower Peninsula of Michigan around 11,000 years ago, the Maple River and lower Grand River served as a drainage channel for the meltwater; the channel ran east to west, emptying into the ancestor of Lake Michigan. About 2,000 years ago, the Hopewell Indians settled along the Grand River near present-day Grandville.

Their presence is still seen in the preserved burial mounds. By the late 17th century, the Ottawa had set up villages on the west bank of the Grand River at the site of what would become Grand Rapids. For these peoples, as well as for explorers, fur traders and settlers, river served as an important navigational trade route, it formed part of a major demarcation of land ceded by Native Americans enabling U. S. settlers to obtain title to land in the area. In the 1821 Treaty of Chicago, the Ottawa and Potawatomi ceded to the United States all lands in Michigan Territory south of the Grand River, with the exception of several small reservations; the Grand was important to the rapid development of West-Central Michigan during the 1850s to 1880s, as logs from Michigan's rich pine and oak forests floated down the Grand River for milling. After the Civil War, many soldiers found jobs as lumberjacks cutting logs and guiding them down the river with pike poles and cant hooks; the men wore bright red flannel, felt clothes, spiked boots to hold them onto the floating logs.

The "jacks" earned $1 to $3 per day and all the "vittles" they could eat, a considerable amount. In 1883, heavy rains during June and July brought water levels on the river to record highs; the flooding was bad enough, but the rising water overwhelmed lumbering booms—river enclosures used to sort and organize logs for transport to saw mills—in Lowell, Grand Rapids as well as Grand Haven and Robinson townships. As water rose, the logs escaped the enclosures. Soon and Ottawa counties had a'stampede', as millions of logs flowed uncontrolled down the river and became trapped in bends or against bridges; the result was a logjam of incredible proportions. Grand River Avenue was built early in the settlemen

BabyRiki is a Russian CGI children's animated television series, a pre-school spinoff of Kikoriki. BabyRiki provides edutainment to 0–3 year olds, learning brand new things, anything for toddlers to help them learn and grow; the characters are based on the Kikoriki characters. Krashy – A blue bunny, a born leader, optimistic, social and curious, he is based on the Kikoriki character Krash. Chichi - A magenta hedgehog, serious and diligent little boy, he loves quiet games. He always puts his toy cars away in their garage, he is based on the Kikoriki character Chiko. Wally – A lavender sheep, shy and sensitive, he is based on the Kikoriki character of the same name. Rosy – A pink pig that loves to be in charge, seeks attention in whatever way she can, she is based on the Kikoriki character Rosa. Pandy – A panda, like a small hurricane tied up with a big bow! Pandy is smart, cheerful — and crafty; the series aired on Movile's PlayKids and Splash's Kabillion in the United States, on ITVBe's LittleBe in the United Kingdom.

A third series of 52 episodes is in production and was planned for completion by December 2018

The Machelones were a Colchian tribe located to the far south of the Phasis. There are several references to them in Classical sources; this group may be the Machorones of Pliny who placed them between the Prytanis rivers. The 1st century AD writer Lucian comments about the Machlyai and their ruler, but the account seems to be fictional. Ptolemy, in the early 2nd century AD, mentions the town of Mechlessos on the border of Colchis, but adds nothing substantive, his contemporary author, lists on a west to east orientation the Sannoi, Machelonoi, Heniochoi and Lazoi. Writing in the early 3rd century about an event a hundred years earlier, Dio Cassius relates that the Machelonoi and the neighboring Heniochoi were ruled by a single "king", who submitted to the Roman emperor Trajan. There is a special mention in the anonymous Periplus Ponti Evcines that both the Machelones and Heniochoi were once called Ekcheireis; the country called Machelonia, a client state of the Sassanid Persian Empire, figures in the so-called Res Gestae Divi Saporis, the mid-3rd-century AD trilingual inscription concerning the political and religious activities of Shapur I, appears, in this case, to be synonymous to Colchis.

The Machelones were related ethnically to the neighboring Macrones, known since at least the 5th century BC