For several hundred years, the low, swampy area was occupied mostly by the Potawatomi tribe. Later, in the early 19th century, it was the most unpleasant part of a trail between Lansing, MichiganLansing and Dexter, MichiganDexter (which at the time contained a major farmers market) and a point on the route taken by traders portaging between the Huron River (Michigan)Huron River and the Grand River (Michigan)Grand River. In the late 1830s, George Reeves, a New York farmer, started several businesses in the area — a general store, and a watermill, and a distillery — which became the core of a minor population center; by the 1840s, enough people had immigrated to make a 70-person school viable (assuming 19th century birth rates, this pegs the population somewhere close to its current level). According to the town's semiofficial Web site, there are two leading theories about the origin of Hell's name. The first holds that a pair of German travelers stepped out of a stagecoach one sunny afternoon in the 1830s, and one said to the other, "So schön und hell!" - roughly translated as, "So beautiful and bright!" Their comments were overheard by some locals and the name stuck. The second holds that after Michigan gained statehood, George Reeves was asked what he thought the town he helped settle should be called, and replied, "I don't care, you can name it Hell for all I care." The name became official on October 13 1841. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell%2C_Michigan