Portage Point
Encyclopedia
Portage Point is an unincorporated summer resort area of Onekama Township
, Manistee County
in the U.S. state
of Michigan
. It includes the site of the first town on Portage Lake
at 44°21′43"N 86°15′42"W It is located on the narrow strip of land between Portage Lake and Lake Michigan developed by the Portage Point Association. A post office operated in summers from August 1917 until September 1921.
. The first known non-native Americans to live for any length of time near Portage Point was the crew of the schooner Prince Eugene that wrecked on 15 November 1835 three or four miles (6 km) south of the present-day channel between Portage Lake and Lake Michigan
. Not wanting to walk to the nearest town in winter, Grand Rapids
or Muskegon
, they built a log cabin in the dunes and waited for spring.
Michigan became a state in 1837, and in that same year the Federal government first surveyed the area around Portage Lake. At that time the lake was called "O-neK-ama-engk", which was believed to be the native word for "portage".
The natural outlet of Portage Lake was located about a mile north of the present-man made outlet. This stream ran northwesterly from the Portage Lake side (close to and crossing the section lines between sections 21 and 28) the present day intersection of Ridge Avenue and Portage Point Drive, north along Norwood Avenue to cross Lakeisle Avenue and then to pass into Lake Michigan just north of the intersection of Lakeisle and Lakeside Avenue are located, almost exatly on the section line separating sections 28 and 33. It was recognized very early as an excellent site for a waterpowered saw mill.
In 1845, Joseph Stronach purchased the land surrounding the outlet from Portage Lake and his uncle, James Stronach, built a dam and a sawmill at the outlet, about eight rods back from the Lake Michigan shore. In the summer of 1850, Joseph Stronach drowned while sailing a small sailing from the Portage Creek outlet to Manistee
and the property passed to his nephew, James Stronach, who miantained it until about 1852, when Joseph Harper purchased it. At that point, the entrance to the Portage stream could reportedly accommodate vessels with a draft of nearly two feet, but could not pass the dam into Portage Lake. The mill burned in 1853. Harper returned the 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) property to Stronach, who in turn sold it to the J. L. James Company of Chicago. Over the next eighteen years, the mill was rebuilt and the property expanded to more than 4000 acres (16.2 km²) of timberland. The preoprty was operated succcesively by a number of firms, including Hannah and Rockwell in 1857, Coffin and Lockwood in 1860, Porter and Bates in 1866, Porter & Co. in 1868.
By 1870, the operation of the sawmill and its dam had created difficulties for landowners on the northern and eastern shores of Portage Lake. The Lake as originally landlocked, except for the small stream and had a natural height about four to five feet above the level of Lake Michigan. The dam created at the Portage Mill to operate the saw mill was increasingly raised and had the effect of raising the water level of Portage Lake by an additional five to six feet, flooding the low lying land at the far send of the lake. From 1860, farmers in the area began to complain about the mill operators practice of periodically raising the Lake level to accommodate their needs for power to operate the saw mill. Additionally, the mill company began to charge increasingly high fees to use their pier at the Portage outlet. Business at Portage Mill increased rapidly and the site became a busy little village as the mill and its fifty workers reportedly cut 30,000 shingles, 10,000-12,000 pieces of lath a day, totally 4.5 million feet of timber in the 1870 cutting season.
By 1870, the pier at the Portage Mill was a wooden bridge pier that was 30 to 40 feet (12.2 m) wide, stood about 12 feet (3.7 m) out of the water, and extended several hundred feet into Lake Michigan. A narrow gauge railroad caries the timber from the mill out to the waiting vessels alongside the pier. The pier was widely known and used not only for loading sailing ships with lumber cut at the mill, but also by sidewheel and propeller steam-powered vessels that stopped to refuel with wood or to pick up or deliver passengers and freight for the surrounding area. The United States Government established Post Office at the Mill on 8 May 1871, but the Post Office Department required the name "O-nek-a-ma" for addresses in the area around Portage Lake, although the little village and mill retained the name "Portage".
Meanwhile, the farmers operating their homestead lands around the shore of the lake were becoming increasingly exasperated by the Portage Mill operators. In 1868, a group of homesteaders had sought an injunction against Porter & Company to prevent the firm from raising their lake level above its natural levels, complaining that 400 acres (1.6 km²) had been flooded. Others complained that they could sail boats among the trees. As a result, the circuit court ordered on 25 May 1870 the removal of the dam by 5 December 1870. The court order required that it be served personally on the proprietors of Porter & Company, but this proved to be difficult as they were located in Chicago. By mid-April 1871, the homesteaders made a formal complaint in Circuit Court reporting to the court that Porter & Company had failed to comply.
Under the pretense of starting a rival timber company, Nathan Pierce and Theodore Heiss had purchased a strip of land in 1867 from Andrew Shanks about a mile south of the Portage Mill on the narrow sand isthmus between Portage Lake and Lake Michigan. Four years later, Amos Pierce (Nathan's son and right-hand man) with a group of other like-minded men, decided to dig a ditch that would permanently lower Portage Lake to the level of Lake Michigan and put the Portage Mill out of business. A long list of local people joined in the effort to dig a ditch. When Porter & Company's representatives saw the work underway, they attempted to charge the organizers with cutting off their water supplies, but the feelings against the company was so bitter hat the court dismissed the complaint.
On the night of 13 May 1871, the ditch was ready with only a log barricade holding back the waters of Portage Lake and those who had been involved reportedly held a dance celebration for fifty people at the site. The following morning, Sunday 14 May 1871, a single ox pulled the barricade down and the waters rushed through the cut, digging an even deeper and wider passage. The new passage was nearly five hundred feet wide and twelve feet deep, lowering Portage Lake by twelve to fourteen feet and returning it to its pre-historic condition as a natural bay of Lake Michigan.
Offshore in Lake Michigan that Sunday, the sidewheel steamer John A. Dix on a passage between Manistee and Traverse City
suddenly found itself surrounded by trees swept out from the new Portage Lake cut and changed her course to the Wisconsin side of the Lake to avoid the danger. On Monday, 15 May 1871, the tugboat Williams was first ship entered Portage Lake through the cut to loud cheers and celebration. In recognition of this fact, the local people named the Portage Lake side of the cut Williamsport, Michigan
in honor of the tug boat.
With this development, the settlement around the old Portage outlet was moved to the eastern end of Portage Lake, where it adopted the new Post office name of O-nek-a-ma'.
The first decade for the Portage Point Inn was a difficult time, but a few cottages were built and paid annual dues to the resort. In 1909, the Northern Michigan Transportation Company began to purchase tracts of land on the northern and western shore of Portage Lake and by 1914 had become the principal investor in the Portage Portage Point Assembly and, by the end of that year, took over management of the Inn. They platted the subdivision of 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) of land to the north of the Assembly's property that included the sire of the old village of Portage and began to sell the lots. This area was called the Portage Park Addition and consisted of 3,500 lots including a golf course, but only a small fraction of these lots were ever sold and developed.
By 1914, the Portage Point Inn was served by the steamships of the Northern Michigan Transportation Company, SS Puritan and SS Missouri and those of the Pere Marquette Line, providing direct service from Chicago
and Milwaukee.
From this year, the summer colony began to develop quietly and steadily. Mary B. (Mrs Frank J.) Hattendorf was the first of a large group of residents from the Chicago suburb of Western Springs, Illinois
to come to Portage Point. A widowed school teacher, she and her young son first arrived in 1914 and purchased two lots, first living in a tent and then constructing a house on the same site in 1916. She persuaded her closest friends from Western Springs, Illinois
, Harmon and Mary Watt, to join her for the summer. They purchased adjoining lots and were soon joined by other mutual friends from Western Springs, including Leonard and Anita Vaughan, Hugh and Nell Rollin, and the Arthur Boyers. Many others from the same town joined them over the years as following generations continued to make Portage Point their summer residence and brought their friends and extended families.
In 1985, the Portage Point Inn was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
.
Onekama Township, Michigan
Onekama Township is a civil township of Manistee County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,514 at the 2000 census.- Communities :* The Village of Onekama is located within the township on the northeast side of Portage Lake...
, Manistee County
Manistee County, Michigan
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 24,527 people, 9,860 households, and 6,714 families residing in the county. The population density was 45 people per square mile . There were 14,272 housing units at an average density of 26 per square mile...
in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. It includes the site of the first town on Portage Lake
Portage Lake (Michigan)
Portage Lake is a natural lake, located in Onekama Township in Manistee County, Michigan. The village of Onekama, Michigan is situated at the northeastern end of the lake.-History:...
at 44°21′43"N 86°15′42"W It is located on the narrow strip of land between Portage Lake and Lake Michigan developed by the Portage Point Association. A post office operated in summers from August 1917 until September 1921.
Early history and settlement
The area was probably visited by Henri de Tonty in 1679 and other early explorers of the eastern coast of Lake MichiganLake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
. The first known non-native Americans to live for any length of time near Portage Point was the crew of the schooner Prince Eugene that wrecked on 15 November 1835 three or four miles (6 km) south of the present-day channel between Portage Lake and Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
. Not wanting to walk to the nearest town in winter, Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...
or Muskegon
Muskegon, Michigan
Muskegon is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 38,401. The city is the county seat of Muskegon County...
, they built a log cabin in the dunes and waited for spring.
Michigan became a state in 1837, and in that same year the Federal government first surveyed the area around Portage Lake. At that time the lake was called "O-neK-ama-engk", which was believed to be the native word for "portage".
The natural outlet of Portage Lake was located about a mile north of the present-man made outlet. This stream ran northwesterly from the Portage Lake side (close to and crossing the section lines between sections 21 and 28) the present day intersection of Ridge Avenue and Portage Point Drive, north along Norwood Avenue to cross Lakeisle Avenue and then to pass into Lake Michigan just north of the intersection of Lakeisle and Lakeside Avenue are located, almost exatly on the section line separating sections 28 and 33. It was recognized very early as an excellent site for a waterpowered saw mill.
In 1845, Joseph Stronach purchased the land surrounding the outlet from Portage Lake and his uncle, James Stronach, built a dam and a sawmill at the outlet, about eight rods back from the Lake Michigan shore. In the summer of 1850, Joseph Stronach drowned while sailing a small sailing from the Portage Creek outlet to Manistee
Manistee, Michigan
Manistee is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 6,586. It is the county seat of Manistee County. The name "Manistee" is from an Ojibwe word first applied to the principal river of the county. The derivation is not certain, but it may be from...
and the property passed to his nephew, James Stronach, who miantained it until about 1852, when Joseph Harper purchased it. At that point, the entrance to the Portage stream could reportedly accommodate vessels with a draft of nearly two feet, but could not pass the dam into Portage Lake. The mill burned in 1853. Harper returned the 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) property to Stronach, who in turn sold it to the J. L. James Company of Chicago. Over the next eighteen years, the mill was rebuilt and the property expanded to more than 4000 acres (16.2 km²) of timberland. The preoprty was operated succcesively by a number of firms, including Hannah and Rockwell in 1857, Coffin and Lockwood in 1860, Porter and Bates in 1866, Porter & Co. in 1868.
By 1870, the operation of the sawmill and its dam had created difficulties for landowners on the northern and eastern shores of Portage Lake. The Lake as originally landlocked, except for the small stream and had a natural height about four to five feet above the level of Lake Michigan. The dam created at the Portage Mill to operate the saw mill was increasingly raised and had the effect of raising the water level of Portage Lake by an additional five to six feet, flooding the low lying land at the far send of the lake. From 1860, farmers in the area began to complain about the mill operators practice of periodically raising the Lake level to accommodate their needs for power to operate the saw mill. Additionally, the mill company began to charge increasingly high fees to use their pier at the Portage outlet. Business at Portage Mill increased rapidly and the site became a busy little village as the mill and its fifty workers reportedly cut 30,000 shingles, 10,000-12,000 pieces of lath a day, totally 4.5 million feet of timber in the 1870 cutting season.
By 1870, the pier at the Portage Mill was a wooden bridge pier that was 30 to 40 feet (12.2 m) wide, stood about 12 feet (3.7 m) out of the water, and extended several hundred feet into Lake Michigan. A narrow gauge railroad caries the timber from the mill out to the waiting vessels alongside the pier. The pier was widely known and used not only for loading sailing ships with lumber cut at the mill, but also by sidewheel and propeller steam-powered vessels that stopped to refuel with wood or to pick up or deliver passengers and freight for the surrounding area. The United States Government established Post Office at the Mill on 8 May 1871, but the Post Office Department required the name "O-nek-a-ma" for addresses in the area around Portage Lake, although the little village and mill retained the name "Portage".
Meanwhile, the farmers operating their homestead lands around the shore of the lake were becoming increasingly exasperated by the Portage Mill operators. In 1868, a group of homesteaders had sought an injunction against Porter & Company to prevent the firm from raising their lake level above its natural levels, complaining that 400 acres (1.6 km²) had been flooded. Others complained that they could sail boats among the trees. As a result, the circuit court ordered on 25 May 1870 the removal of the dam by 5 December 1870. The court order required that it be served personally on the proprietors of Porter & Company, but this proved to be difficult as they were located in Chicago. By mid-April 1871, the homesteaders made a formal complaint in Circuit Court reporting to the court that Porter & Company had failed to comply.
Under the pretense of starting a rival timber company, Nathan Pierce and Theodore Heiss had purchased a strip of land in 1867 from Andrew Shanks about a mile south of the Portage Mill on the narrow sand isthmus between Portage Lake and Lake Michigan. Four years later, Amos Pierce (Nathan's son and right-hand man) with a group of other like-minded men, decided to dig a ditch that would permanently lower Portage Lake to the level of Lake Michigan and put the Portage Mill out of business. A long list of local people joined in the effort to dig a ditch. When Porter & Company's representatives saw the work underway, they attempted to charge the organizers with cutting off their water supplies, but the feelings against the company was so bitter hat the court dismissed the complaint.
On the night of 13 May 1871, the ditch was ready with only a log barricade holding back the waters of Portage Lake and those who had been involved reportedly held a dance celebration for fifty people at the site. The following morning, Sunday 14 May 1871, a single ox pulled the barricade down and the waters rushed through the cut, digging an even deeper and wider passage. The new passage was nearly five hundred feet wide and twelve feet deep, lowering Portage Lake by twelve to fourteen feet and returning it to its pre-historic condition as a natural bay of Lake Michigan.
Offshore in Lake Michigan that Sunday, the sidewheel steamer John A. Dix on a passage between Manistee and Traverse City
Traverse City, Michigan
Traverse City is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Grand Traverse County, although a small portion extends into Leelanau County. It is the largest city in the 21-county Northern Michigan region. The population was 14,674 at the 2010 census, with 143,372 in the Traverse...
suddenly found itself surrounded by trees swept out from the new Portage Lake cut and changed her course to the Wisconsin side of the Lake to avoid the danger. On Monday, 15 May 1871, the tugboat Williams was first ship entered Portage Lake through the cut to loud cheers and celebration. In recognition of this fact, the local people named the Portage Lake side of the cut Williamsport, Michigan
Williamsport, Michigan
Williamsport is a place name in Onekama Township, Manistee County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located on the southwestern shore of Portage Lake at . and had its beginning in about 1871 when a channel was dug connecting Portage Lake with Lake Michigan...
in honor of the tug boat.
With this development, the settlement around the old Portage outlet was moved to the eastern end of Portage Lake, where it adopted the new Post office name of O-nek-a-ma'.
Summer resort
After the lumber industry was exhausted, Michigan's leaders began to look for an alternative means of economic development of the state. In 1897, the Michigan State legislature enabled the formation of corporations in order to build resorts. In 1902, the Sunnyside Assembly purchased the land on the northwest side of Portage Lake that had formerly belonged to the Marvins. The changed the name of their organization to the Portage Point Assembly and incorporated it on 31 January 1902 under the special 1897 act of the Michigan legislature for building a resort and immediately began to build the Portage Point Inn on 12 July 1902. The following year, the building first opened for guests on 20 June 1903.The first decade for the Portage Point Inn was a difficult time, but a few cottages were built and paid annual dues to the resort. In 1909, the Northern Michigan Transportation Company began to purchase tracts of land on the northern and western shore of Portage Lake and by 1914 had become the principal investor in the Portage Portage Point Assembly and, by the end of that year, took over management of the Inn. They platted the subdivision of 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) of land to the north of the Assembly's property that included the sire of the old village of Portage and began to sell the lots. This area was called the Portage Park Addition and consisted of 3,500 lots including a golf course, but only a small fraction of these lots were ever sold and developed.
By 1914, the Portage Point Inn was served by the steamships of the Northern Michigan Transportation Company, SS Puritan and SS Missouri and those of the Pere Marquette Line, providing direct service from Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and Milwaukee.
From this year, the summer colony began to develop quietly and steadily. Mary B. (Mrs Frank J.) Hattendorf was the first of a large group of residents from the Chicago suburb of Western Springs, Illinois
Western Springs, Illinois
Western Springs is a suburb of Chicago located in Cook County, Illinois. As of the 2000 census, the village had a total population of 12,493. It is twinned with Rugeley, United Kingdom....
to come to Portage Point. A widowed school teacher, she and her young son first arrived in 1914 and purchased two lots, first living in a tent and then constructing a house on the same site in 1916. She persuaded her closest friends from Western Springs, Illinois
Western Springs, Illinois
Western Springs is a suburb of Chicago located in Cook County, Illinois. As of the 2000 census, the village had a total population of 12,493. It is twinned with Rugeley, United Kingdom....
, Harmon and Mary Watt, to join her for the summer. They purchased adjoining lots and were soon joined by other mutual friends from Western Springs, including Leonard and Anita Vaughan, Hugh and Nell Rollin, and the Arthur Boyers. Many others from the same town joined them over the years as following generations continued to make Portage Point their summer residence and brought their friends and extended families.
In 1985, the Portage Point Inn was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
Notable people associated with Portage Point
- Representative Richard Bolling, (D-Missouri), summer resident
- Professor Arthur B. ChapmanArthur B. ChapmanArthur Barclay Chapman was the University of Wisconsin–Madison's "most accomplished animal genetic researcher."-Early life and education:...
, University of Wisconsin–Madison; summer resident - Senator Otis F. GlennOtis F. GlennOtis Ferguson Glenn was a Republican United States Senator from the State of Illinois.He was born in Mattoon, Illinois on August 27, 1879. After graduating law school in 1900 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he began practicing law in Murphysboro...
, (R-Illinois), summer resident - Professor John HattendorfJohn HattendorfJohn Brewster Hattendorf is an American naval historian. He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of more than forty books on British and American maritime history and naval warfare. In 2005, the U.S...
, maritime historian, summer resident - Professor Kenneth S. WagonerKenneth S. WagonerKenneth Shrout Wagoner was a professor of psychology on the faculty of DePauw University and a leading physiological skin scientist.-Early life and education:...
, DePauw University, summer resident - David WarshDavid WarshDavid Warsh is a journalist and author who has generally covered topics in economics and finance. Since 2002, he has written and published Economic Principals, a weekly series of essays about economics and economists....
, journalist and author, summer resident
Sources and references
- Elsket Barstow Cheney, The Story of Portage. Onekama, 1960.
- Gail B. Verplanck, ed., Wellspring: Interesting interviews... The way things were, the way things are... in Manistee County. Manistee: J.B. Publications, 1982, vol II.
- Bill Smythe, compiler and editor, A Place Called Portage: A collection of Memories by those who experienced the Development of a place called Portage from 1912-1989. (Manistee, Michigan: J.B. Publications, 1989).