Along the banks of Sandy Creek near Lake Erie was one of the earliest European settlements in the area, known as the Sandy Creek Settlement. The small settlement was founded as early as 1780 by the French shortly before the much larger Frenchtown settlement, which was founded in 1784 just south near the River Raisin. At the time, the area was under the administration of the British Province of Quebec and predated American territorial control. In 1787, the area became part of the newly established American Northwest Territory, then briefly into the Indiana Territory in 1800, and finally into the Michigan Territory in 1805.