In the foreword to his book “Adrian: The City that Worked,” probably the most comprehensive volume that has ever been written about the the Maple City, local historian Charles Lindquist described being asked an unusual question by a visitor to Adrian.

Why, the visitor asked, is this city here?

The reason for the question was this: Very often, a city’s success is a direct function of its geography. Cities grow up around port cities, and Adrian has no port. They cluster around navigable rivers, which the River Raisin is not. They thrive where there are abundant natural resources, and the area has few of those (aside from the soil — and with the swamps that dominated Lenawee County two centuries ago, even farming was not without its problems).

By all rights, Adrian should not have what it has today — its institutions of higher education, its active artistic and cultural scene that many larger communities cannot match, its numerous foundations that are able to support worthy local projects in perpetuity.

So why is Adrian the city that it is?

Lindquist’s answer was this: Since they couldn’t rely on external factors like geography to make their city thrive, Adrian’s founders knew that they would simply have to work.

And so they did.

Though every place is made up of many different people, cities also tend to develop personalities of their own.  Adrian’s personality — when we are at our best — is defined by an obstinate refusal to take “no” for an answer or accept that something just can’t be done.

Adrian’s story is full of people who refused to give up. People like Laura Haviland, who fought an uphill battle against slavery. People like Charlie Hickman and Al Goldsmith, who started Brazeway when they had an idea for something that their employer thought was impossible. People like the first Mexican-American residents of Sunnyside, who — when denied the ability to buy homes inside the city limits — basically made a city of their own.

As Adrian marks its 200th birthday, let’s continue to work hard, be stubborn, and refuse to give up. 

It’s how we got here. And it’s how we will create our future.