Building the third dam in 1913. Mason County Historical Society Rose Hawley Archives.
This Great Lakes History Log is presented by Filer Credit Union and the Mason County Historical Society
By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief
When researching history it’s easy to go down a bunny trail and get side-tracked. This is often the case when I am looking through the massive and impressive collection of newspapers at the Mason County Historical Society’s Rose Hawley Archives, 130 E. Ludington Ave. The newspaper collection occupies an entire climate controlled room — the lower level vault in the building that once served as a bank.
While trying to find an obituary I flipped past this front page of the July 16, 1913 edition of the Ludington Chronicle and found that this one simple page offered a treasure trove of history.
Naturally, the article that caught my eye was the lead story that occupied the majority of the paper. Complete with photographs the article’s headline read: “New Concrete Hamlin Dam a Monument to Local Enterprise.”
This article tells the story of the completion of the “new” Big Sable River dam located at Hamlin (the modern Ludington State Park). The story recounts how the previous dam had collapsed and that a group of local citizens had invested $25,000 to replace it.
The articles speaks volumes of the spirit of a community and the recognition of the economic importance of this dam, though the community of Hamlin essentially no longer existed. The first dam in that location was built about 1856 by lumber baron Charles Mears, who had straightened out the river so it would flow directly into Lake Michigan (the Ludington State Park features excellent interpretive signs that explain the history of the river and the village of Hamlin, which I would recommend visiting).
That first wooden dam collapsed in 1888, causing a wall of water to wash away acres of river bank and all the structures along it. Fortunately, no lives were lost, however most of the residents lost their possessions. The dam was rebuilt and lasted until the 1912 collapse.
By 1912, the lumber industry was near its end and moving logs down the river was no longer the prime reason for a new dam. Instead, Hamlin Lake was becoming a resort area. When the dam collapsed in 1912, the water level was drastically lowered, causing a threat to the next year’s tourist season.
The fact that the dam was nearly completed just seven months after investors gathered the capital to replace the old one speaks volumes of the ingenuity and work ethic of those days.
The top left “above the fold” article is titled: “RIGHT OF WAY; Interurban Promoters Securing Route Through Riverton; HOW ENTER CITY; Speculation Rife As to Line Road will Take — Probably Cross Dirt Bridge Over Pere Marquette River”
This article discusses negotiations to develop an interurban railroad between Muskegon and Ludington. The article is full of “off the record” speculation, as the headline even states, about how two men, Mr. Weil and H.M. Hardy, were negotiating for the right-of-way for the railroad, which, the newspaper speculated, would travel through a corner of Summit Township, into Riverton, then into Pere Marquette Township, through Ludington, up what is now M-116/Lakeshore Drive and into Victory Township.
Since the article was based on speculation, I will speculate myself. At this very same year, the State Trunkline Highway System was created by an act of the Michigan Legislature, setting up a roadway system for automobiles — which were the downfall of passenger rail. The previous year, the West Michigan Lake Shore Highway Association had been founded and was reorganized in May 1913 as the West Michigan Pike Association, which was developing a roadway system up Michigan’s west shoreline from the state line near Niles to Mackinaw City.
Learn more details by reading my article on the history of US 31 published in July 2019 on MCP.
Needless to say, the interurban was never developed but the West Michigan Pike made its way through Mason County and evolved into US 31, US 10 and M-116.
At the bottom of the page is a small, one-paragraph article that hints toward the development of the West Michigan Pike: “Boost for Good Roads.” It discusses how the newspaper’s Scottville correspondent had attended a visit of the Chicago-Mackinac good roads delegation.
“The line of autos was augmented here by a long string of local machines and at the Stearns the speeches were listened to with enthusiastic approval. Ludington citizens realize that the proposed lake shore road when it materializes, will be one of the biggest and best things that every happened to Mason county.”
On the opposite side of the page “above the fold,” the headline reads: BEST IN WORLD; Four More Grainers to Be Built at Anchor Salt Block; EMPLOY MORE MEN; Joy Morton Visits Plant and Authorizes Extensive and Expensive Additions to Equipment”
In 1881, Charles Rietz of the Rietz Bros. Lumber Company in Manistee discovered brine in Manistee. The brine pool proved to lie from 1,500 to 2,000 feet below the surface. By the end of 1881, Rietz was producing 200 barrels a day. The brine was discovered to have extended south in Mason County. As the lumber industry was fading away, lumber firms in Manistee and Ludington discovered that they owned thousands of acres above the brine. They also owned the land around Manistee and Pere Marquette lakes that that already were part of a cross-lake transportation network established by the Flint & Pere Marquette Railway.
This article discussed how Joy Morton of Chicago, president of the Morton Salt company had visited the Ludington plant, located at the end of Madison Avenue along Pere Marquette Lake. The article stated that about 60 men were employed at the plant but Morton was prepared to more than double the capacity of the plant and add at least 15 to 20 more jobs.
While the lumber industry faded away well over 100 years ago, the salt industry continues to operate in both Ludington and Manistee. Morton Salt is still functioning in Manistee while Occidental Chemical (formerly Dow Chemical), operates in Ludington, manufacturing by-products of the brine.
Below that story on the right side of the page is the headline: “MILWAUKEE COMING: Annual Excursion from Cream City Next Week”
This article discusses the annual visit of retail merchants from Milwaukee to Ludington and Manistee, via one of the Pere Marquette steamers. These two articles discuss how vital the cross-lake shipping business was to connect Ludington and Manistee to much bigger cities.
At the same time, this newspaper contains two articles that hint to the demise of the cross-lake service that mostly transported rail cars across Lake Michigan. The first being the article about the interurban proposal (as stated, reading beyond the article how automobiles put an end to such endeavors) and then the next article “The Ships That Didn’t Pass.” This article discussed how airships were expected to pass by the lakeshore. These airships, also known as dirigibles, what we now call blimps, were just part of the development of air travel. Ten years previous to this newspaper’s publication, the Wright brothers had conducted the first successful powered airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The demise of the airship came with the famous explosion of the German hydrogen-filled Hindenburg in 1937. However, blimps are still used on a limited basis today.
Another transportation article discusses a negative impact of the modern automobile, “CHAUFFEUR RESPONSIBLE; Coroner’s Jury Finds Powell Came to Death by Careless and Reckless Driving.” Unfortunately, we still see these stories in the pages of our modern news services. This particular article discusses how Cecil Powell of Grand Rapids dies in a car crash on North Park Street in Ludington. He was married to Mabel Parker of Scottville. The article goes into some detail about Mrs. Powell, the former Miss Parker, didn’t have good luck with automobiles since her brother had been electrocuted at the Buick garage in Scottville in 1911 while aiding Dr. T.J. Foster repair his vehicle.
This newspaper also features a front page story on the results of the latest game of Ludington’s minor league baseball team, the Mariners. A wonderful display about the Mariners can be viewed at the Rose Hawley Archives. Additionally, Dr. William Anderson wrote a book about the team.
Filer Credit Union with offices in Manistee, Ludington, East Lake, and Bear Lake; filercu.com; 800.595.6630
The Mason County Historical Society is a non-profit charitable organization that was founded in 1937 that does not receive any governmental funding. It owns and operates the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum in Ludington, Historic White Pine Village in Pere Marquette Township, and The Rose Hawley Archives and the Mason County Emporium and Sweet Shop in downtown Ludington.
For more information about donating to and/or joining the Mason County Historical Society, visit masoncountymihistory.org.
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