Biohazard Cleanup Near West Sebewaing Sebewaing, MI

Sebewaing is a village in Huron County on Saginaw Bay in Michigan's Thumb, pronounced SEE-bah-wing.

The village was founded in 1845 by Reverend John J. F. Auch, a Lutheran minister who established a mission here; it began as Auchville before taking the name Sebewaing, from the Ojibwe word ziibiiweng, meaning 'by the stream.'

Sebewaing was incorporated as a village by an act of the Michigan legislature on March 13, 1879.

Sebewaing is known as the Sugar Beet Capital, thanks to the Michigan Sugar Company slicing factory in the village, which has processed sugar beets since its first campaign in 1902 and is the only Michigan Sugar factory to have run continuously since opening.

The Sebewaing factory produces about 260 million pounds of sugar a year and employs roughly 285 year-round and seasonal workers, making it the village's largest employer.

The village celebrates its sugar heritage every June at the Michigan Sugar Festival, which began in 1965 and draws around 10,000 visitors to a community of fewer than 2,000 people.

Sebewaing was Michigan's first gigabit village: in 2014-15 it completed a fiber-to-the-home network offering internet speeds up to one gigabit per second.

Beer is part of Sebewaing's heritage too — the E. O. Braendle Brewery opened in 1880, and the Sebewaing Brewing Company produced German-style beers in the village until 1965, reflecting the area's strong German settler roots.

The 2020 census counted 1,721 residents in Sebewaing, and at the 2010 census its 1,759 residents lived in 802 households.

The Sebewaing River runs through the village to Saginaw Bay, and ground was broken for the sugar factory on September 28, 1901, with the first load of beets arriving in October 1902.