Category Archives: History

Near the entrance of the Port Crescent State Park campground, near the tip of the Thumb, is a round brick structure. It is what remains of a chimney that once reached into the sky in the town of Port Crescent. The town started in 1844 with a trading post and a hotel. It was named Pinnebog for the river that flowed next to it. Another town further upstream also took the name Pinnebog and so the town changed the name to Port Crescent.

During the late 1800s, the town prospered with two sawmills, a wagon factory, hotels, a brewery and several other businesses for the more than 500 people who called the town home. After the devastating fires swept through the thumb in 1871 and ten years later in 1881 the timber in the region was depleted and the decline of the town began. By 1894 most of the buildings were gone and only a few people remained to ship sand from the are to be used in glass making until 1936.

The state acquired 124 acres of property along the Saginaw Bay where the town once stood for a new state park. Port Crescent State Park was officially established on September 6, 1959.

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Dune Forest Village photo from Wikipedia

Mears resident and newspaper publisher Swift Lathers built a retreat for himself and his family in the dunes that is now part of Silver Lake State Park. Swift was born in Detroit in 1889. After earning a teaching degree from Michigan State Normal College ( Eastern Michigan University) and taking law classes at U of M he moved to the west side of the state where he taught in a one-room schoolhouse. He moved to Mears and became the postmaster and in 1914 he began publishing a newspaper called The Mears Newz. 

The General Store at Dune Forest Village from Wikipedia.

In 1939 Lathers began a retreat from daily life by homesteading on the Lake Michigan dunes west of Mears. Access roads did not exist and he slowly began walking in lumber and built small buildings. He constructed a school, chapel, general store, a printing office, and some residential houses. Swift Lathers little community became known as Dune Forrest Village. Many people came to visit and stay in the little village, but over time it was used less and became abandoned. Vandals and time slowly destroyed the buildings. Swift Lathers died in 1970 and that same year park officials removed the remains of buildings, and the property became part of Silver Lake State Park. Nothing remains of the village but memories.

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In the late 1887s, George Hart cleared the land where the park is now and planted an apple orchard, which gave the park its name. The orchard sat on a high bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. By 1892 Hart had built a boardwalk and theater to attract more tourists. With its growing popularitey, A trolley line ran from Manistee for people to visit enjoying the view and sunsets over Lake Michigan.

As Michiganders fell in love with the automobile few people were using the trolly and passenger trains.  Trolley service to the park eventually stopped and the site was purchased by the Manistee Board of Commerce which deeded it to the state to become part of the Michigan state park system in 1921.  The state built a campground among the apple trees and purchased the dairy farm across the street which is now a natural area and used for hiking trails.

The limestone buildings in the park were designed by architect Ernest F. Hartwick and built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps as part of Franklin D. Roosevelts “New Deal”. The apple trees are gone and large oak and maple trees have taken their place. It would have been interesting camping in an orchard. Could you pick the apples from the trees on your site?  Unfortunately, the stairway leading to Lake Michigan is closed due to erosion however the park has been upgraded with some full hook-up sites.  The park was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2009, cited as “one of the most intact examples of a Michigan state park developed in the 1930s and 1940s

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Sometimes it gets frustrating making reservation on the website. Either the site you want is not available or the website is not working correctly. It is still way better than the old way of making reservations. I have been camping since the 80’s and I remember to make reservations you would mail a check to Lansing with a reservation form you got at one of the parks. Yes, the old school way of sticking it in an envelope with a stamp. E-mail was just a futuristic dream at that time.  When Lansing received your check either they would process it and if the dates and park you wanted were available they would send you a letter back confirming your reservation. If not they would mail your check back to you. If you were able to get a reservation, the DNR would save a site for you but they did not save a specific site for you. Lansing would mail a list of reservations to the state park and when you showed up they would look on the list for your name. Most of the parks had a large whiteboard behind the counter with a map of the campground. If someone was camped on a site they would write the date they left on that campsite. You could choose from any available campsite. That means that if you get there early in the day you had more sites to choose from. If you made it there Friday night you may be getting the only remaining site in the park.

I was told that the DNR only reserved about half of the campground and the rest were available for walk-ins. That meant that most people would get there on Thursday to get a site and the earlier you got there the more sites you could choose from.  The new system is not perfect, but it is nice knowing you have reservations and what site you are on. I remember going up north going from park to park looking for one that was not full hoping to find a campsite for a holiday weekend.

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In 1898, Sam Crawford purchased fifty-three thousand acres of stumpland around Menominee and began logging operations on the hemlock growing among the pine stumps. Five hundred of these acres were was still virgin timber, and Crawford intentionally preserved it. John Walter Wells, part owner of the Bird-Wells Lumber Company, later purchase this land. Wells died in 1921, and in 1925 his children donated 335 acres of virgin timber, including 2.5 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline, to the state of Michigan to establish a park. An additional 131 acres which had been purchased by the Menominee County Road Commission was added to create the park.

Development of the park began in 1927–28. Trees were planted and stoves, toilets, a well, and play equipment were installed. In 1929 a log bathhouse was constructed. Much of the development in the park was done by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). In 1933, a two-hundred man camp was established, and over the next 10 years, the CCC developed five distinct areas within the park: the day-use (or picnic) area, the residence area, the group camp area, the campground area, and the trails and trailside shelters area. The CCC undertook a major reforestation project in the park, constructed three miles of foot trails, a parking lot, recreational fields, and sanitary facilities

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At the end of WWII and the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear bombs, the world was forever changed ushering in the Cold War. You probably know the Manhatten project’s mission was to create the first nuclear weapons. But you probably did not know that it started with a clandestine meeting on the beach at Otsego Lake State Park.  Dr. Arthur H. Compton a Nobel Prize-winning physicist was placed in charge of the project. He met with theoretical physicist Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer on the beach to discuss if the project was even possible. Dr. Compton had a  summer home on Otsego Lake and chose the state park for the meeting because he knew it was a secluded spot and would be away from enemy spies. After the men agreed that it could be done they continued moving forward with the government’s plans to create the first atomic bomb.

If you find this interesting check out my Lost In Michigan books that are ON SALE this weekend. be sure to get yours before the sale ends on Monday. you can order them HERE

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