Macomb County is located in southeastern Michigan along the Western Lake St. Clair shoreline, adjacent to the greater Detroit area to the south. It consists of a diverse economy, strong in the area of auto-industry production. Its geographic diversity includes heavily populated urban areas to the south, to an urbanized country-like setting to the north, including some of the best apple orchards in the state. Its county seat is Mount Clemens.

Macomb County was named after General Alexander Macomb, commandant of Detroit from 1815 to 1821 and a hero in the war of 1812. The county was first settled in 1782 in what is now Harrison Township by a group of Moravian missionaries and their Indian converts, who were forcibly moved here by the British because of their strong pro-American patriotism during the Revolution.

Later, Christian Clemens and John Brooks built a distillery at what is now Mount Clemens, partially due to the rich mineral water deposits in the area, which also attracted many for health reasons. The area grew rapidly during World War II, with Selfridge Air Base expanded to train pilots and a tank plant built by Chrysler in Warren. After the war, the area boomed, especially in auto and steel production; it now has become the third most populated county in the state