Lake City Area Chamber of Commerce

Snowmobile Trails

Lake City Area Chamber — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 06:30:03 +0000

If you are looking to find out what kind of condition our snowmobile trails are in, you can check with the Missaukee Trail Blazers. Their members work hard at keeping our trails cleaned and groomed. They recently added GPS signs all along the trail for your safety. They also have new maps available and the Chamber is selling tham at $2 each or at any business who was kind enough to put an advertisment on the map. For more information go to www.missaukeetrailblazers.org.

Missaukee Ski Mountain

Lake City Area Chamber — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 15:22:30 +0000

Lake City also has it's very own ski mountain just 3.5 miles north on M-66. Missaukee Mountain is open on the weekends and all of Christmas break, depending on snow conditions. It offers a bunny mound, beginner runs, intermediate slopes, expert challenge and moguls galore with 3 tow ropes. The mountain also has more than five miles of cross-country trails. Snow boarding is also welcome at the Mountain. If you don't own ski equipment, no worries, the mountain has lots of downhill and cross country ski equipment for you to rent. If you want to take out your own sleds or tubes, a sledding hill is available for your enjoyment at no cost. When you've had enough fun or need to warm up, stop in the lodge which offers a comfortable common area and public restrooms. Enjoy some hot chocolate, coffee, or soft drink or a bite to eat and head back out to the slopes. Costs are minimal to encourage the whole family to enjoy time together or with all your friends. You can contact Missaukee Mountain during open hours at (231) 839-7575, or call the Chamber office during the week at (231) 839-4969 for more information.

Area Parks

Lake City Area Chamber — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 13:46:08 +0000

Missaukee County Park is located on the north shore of beautiful 2000 acre Lake Missaukee. There are over 1400 feet of white sand beach with excellent swimming. One hundred seventy total campsites, 96 with water, electricity, and sewer, 21 campsites available with electric only. Modern restrooms and shower facilities are within the camping area, along with a sanitary sewer disposal site. For your enjoyment you will find playground equipment, a bath house, three large pavilions, three separate picnic areas, three ball fields and two horseshoe pits. A lagoon with a boat ramp with 68 slip rentals for docking. There are over 33 acres of park for your convenience and pleasure. A manager is on the grounds during the summer months. A fee is charged. Boat slip and pavilion reservations available beginning the first working day after New Year's Day. Contact Missaukee County Parks Commission at (231) 839-4945.

Crooked Lake Park is located on Crooked Lake near the town of Jennings. Here you wil find 37 primitive sites and 15 sites with electricity. There is a picnic area, covered pavilion, vault type toilets, a boat launching ramp and a hiking trail. There are approximately, 1000 feet of sandy beach with good swimming and over 60 acres of hard woods, white birch, poplar, and pine with rolling hills and foot paths. Two hand pumps are available for drinking water and there is a sanitary sewer disposal site for your convenience. A fee is charges. Contact Missaukee County Parks Commission at (231) 839-4945.

Ben Jeffs Park is located at the Muskegon River, 16 miles east of Lake City. Seventeen hard surface primitive campsites available, pit toilets, well and pavilion on grounds. Sixty six acres with hardwoods. Contact Missaukee County Parks Commission at (231) 839-4945.

Maple Grove Campground is located four blocks from Lake Missaukee at the east end of Union Street. It is a semi-wooded area with 23 campsites, electricity, water, modern restrooms and showers, baseball field and a sanitary service disposal site. A community building with kitchen facilities is available for receptions, parties, or family reunions. A fee is charged. Contact the City of Lake City at (231) 839-4429 for park reservations.

Goose Lake & Long Lake State Forest Campgrounds are located northwest of Lake City off Goose Lake Rd. Rustic camping for campers, motor homes, or tents, is available with pit toilets, boat ramps, and picnic tables, but no electricity. Fee charged, no reservations taken.

Hopkins Creek Trail Camp is located west on M-42, north on Lucas Road 5.5 miles and offers rustic camping with pit toilets on Hopkins Creek. No reservations taken.

Reedsburg Dam State Park Campgound is located east 19 miles,on M-55 to north County Line Rd., 3 miles north. Rustic camping for tents is availalbe with pit toilest and picnic tables at dam site. Fee charged. No reservations taken.

Area History

Lake City Area Chamber — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 13:45:27 +0000

Missaukee County is located in the north central portion of the lower peninsula of Michigan between the Manistee River to the northwest and the Muskegon to the east. It was largely unpopulated except by Native American hunting camps. No record of permanent Indian habitation exists in the county other than several circle mounds in Aetna Township – the purpose of which is not known. The county was first surveyed in 1840 but had no year-round residents until after the Civil War. Old growth forests covered much of the county at that time, with extensive swampland in the south and east and hilly highlands in the central and northern townships. In the late 1860's, settlers began moving into the county brought by government land grants, the continuing need for homestead sites for the European immigrants and the northward sweep of timber cutting across Michigan.

The first areas of settlement were on the east side of Lake Missaukee, in present day Lake City, and in the south-central part of the country near Vogel Center and Falmouth. Dutch farm families settled in the fertile southern part of the county. There they cleared the land and established dairy farms, many of which are still worked by the descendants of the original families.

Logging camps spread throughout the county's forests. Valuable white pine trees were logged off first, then the old oak, maple, beech and other hardwoods. Lumber was cut into boards, broom handles, shingles and bowls. Wood scraps were distilled to fuel a thriving chemical industry.

The largest lumber mill in Missaukee County – The Mitchell Brothers Lumber Co. – was in Jennings. For 30 years, Mitchell Brothers was the largest employer in the county, and Jennings was a bustling company town. Experts predicted the supply of standing trees in Michigan was inexhaustible, and the local timber industry boomed.

But the end of the timber industry was already in site by the turn of the century. Lumber camps had clear-cut much of the county. Mills closed or moved on to follow the remaining standing timber. In the 1920's, after most local logging had already closed, Mitchell Brothers finally moved their operation to Cadillac. Hundreds of employees' houses were also moved. and the town of Jennings virtually disappeared overnight. Other logging towns around the county actually did disappear.

But wood-based firms have remained a part of the local economy. Several sawmills operate in the county. One manufacturer produces wolmanized utility poles. Another burns wood scrap to generate electricity.

With the crash of the local lumber industry in the early 20th century, Missaukee County settled into an agricultural economy. Where the land was good, farmers thrived, but many just eked out a living. Much of Missaukee County's soil is sandy and poor, not well suited for pasturing livestock.

But the growth of the auto industry downstate had an unexpected side effect on Missaukee's economy. Assembly line workers and their families began to head northward for vacation and recreation time in Missaukee's still wild lands, lakes and rivers. Tourism eventually became a strong element of the local economy, especially in the decades after World War II. Many vacationers bought summer cottages here and later winterized them into retirement homes.

Forestry, dairy farming, tourism and…Christmas trees. In the 1960's and 1970's, Missaukee County's sandy soil was to be a perfect medium for growing many varieties of Christmas trees, and another leg of the local economy was born. Missaukee is now in the heart of Michigan's Christmas tree-growing district producing millions of trees every year.

As industry has taken a more prominent role in Missaukee's economy, two industrial parks have opened – one near McBain and one north of Lake City. Much of Missaukee's industry is based on wood and lumber, but not all. Several manufacturers supply the auto industry. Others specialize in pre-fab home construction, archery supplies and electrical generation.