The Pine Creek area was settled in 1831 by the Hull Sherwood and Giles Scott families from Rochester, New York, and was first called New Rochester. Allegan County’s first grist mill was built here in 1834, drawing customers from miles around, and the area’s first bridge across the Kalamazoo River followed in 1835. Although the town site was soon overshadowed by nearby Otsego and never became the important center its founders envisioned, it became known as Pine Creek and served farmers and their families west of Otsego with its Pine Creek House hotel, blacksmith shops, and three-story grist mill. In 1899 the village was renamed Dent and a post office was established, but the name lasted only briefly. In 1902 the Kalamazoo Valley Electric Company bought the town’s land, built a dam on the river, and flooded the former Pine Creek area as backwater. Before the flooding, several buildings were moved east on Jefferson Road and one house was moved all the way to Otsego. Several of those old buildings still survive, and when Pine Creek Lake is occasionally lowered, pilings from the old grist mill can still be seen at the water’s edge.