Prior to sand mining, dunes lay on this wide expanse of Manistee’s Fifth Avenue beach. Photo by S.A. McFerran.
By Stewart A. McFerran
The shoreline of Lake Michigan has been shown to be vulnerable to erosion, as high waters batter sandy banks. The sand has proven to be pliable, as shoreline communities shaped their harbors and shores. The sand of western Michigan dunes has also been counted as valuable and is still sold by the ton.
After the Sand Dune Protection and Management Act of 1976 was passed, a decades-long “free for all” in the western Michigan sand box began coming to an end with the new environmental regulations. This act was amended in 1989 to broaden the scope of dune protection.
The Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act 451 of 1994, Part 637, offered further standards and protections. The critical dune areas of the state were identified as “a unique, irreplaceable and fragile resource.” Activities within these critical dune areas are to be regulated by the townships.
Liberties taken with landscapes
The barrier dunes at the Port of Manistee looked very different in the spring of 1933. What is now a wide-open park with pavilions along the Manistee River was once hilly. Also, men had not yet dug a lake in the sand, now called “Man Made Lake,” to the north of the Manistee River.
Several companies determined the sand that made up those hills near the river could be sold and used in manufacturing. The Hubbell Sand Company owned the dune that once stood south of Fifth Avenue. Manistee Sand and Dock Company proposed building a dock on the Manistee River in 1928 that would accommodate freighters. The Sand Products Corporation started mining operations in spring of 1933. (More about the history of Manistee’s sand can be found in an article by Mark Fedder, “The Sand Industry in Manistee“.
Kathy Schaffer, of the Bear Lake Historical Society, remembers the huge dune on the north side of the Manistee River.
“We used to go down from Bear Lake every Spring,” she said. “I remember the big pile of sand, huge … That was in the late ’40s.”
Where the dune had been left by glaciers and built by winds, there are now condos around an inlet to the Manistee River.
Author and historian Steve Harold recalled a dune named “Creeping Joe.” It was 200 feet tall on the south side of the river. It was considered a menace, because the sand would blow off and ruin the paint on houses, and the entire dune seemed to creep toward the city. At the north end of Washington Street, dunes were in motion. The wind sent sand swirling into homes and covering gardens, as reported by the Manistee News Advocate on Feb. 9, 1943.
The City of Manistee sold sand from the dunes for two-and-a-half cents per ton. It was sifted and loaded into railroad cars and freighters. Conveyors were installed to move the sand to docks on the Manistee River. Freighters were filled at a rate of 2,000 tons per hour. The Sand Products Corporation moved five million tons of sand in eight years. The Manistee sand was used in foundries for casting molds. It has a high proportion of iron and aluminum that made it unfit for manufacturing glass.
Man Made Lake, north of Fifth Avenue Beach, is used by the public for swimming and picnicking. The Sand Products Corporation worked with the City of Manistee and the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy to help them successfully purchase and protect the property, partly through a grant from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund. If you park your car in the lake’s small lot and hike the short walkway through the trees to the beach, you can see the altered landscape of the former industrial site.
Snapshots of Lake Michigan dunes
The disastrous fate of Singapore, Michigan, at the mouth of the Kalamazoo River on Lake Michigan, is well known by historians, history buffs and nearby Saugatuck citizens. In the wake of logging operations after the Great Chicago Fire that stripped vegetation from dunes, the town was overrun by shifting sand. The sand moved due to the force of winds blowing unobstructed off the big lake. Eventually, Singapore was abandoned in the 1870s.
Sargent Sand was founded in Ludington in 1919 and has been in operation ever since. The company gave a gift of 409 acres to Ludington State Park in 1971. The company received its first state permit to mine in 1981.
As of April 2020, sand mining operations are currently taking place within Ludington State Park on a Sargent inholding.
In 2017, Sargent received a five-year permit to mine 12 million tons of sand on 400 acres near the shore of Lake Michigan. Large dunes that lay at the shore of Lake Michigan are gone, and two large odd-shaped lakes have appeared. They are the result of dredging operations.
The state bought another 100-plus acres of shoreline dune from Sargent in 2018. According to its Feb. 19, 2020, meeting minutes, the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund board approved $5.3 million to DNR to acquire approximately 280 acres of dunes and shoreline that would become open to the public as part of Ludington State Park. Sargent is currently negotiating with the State of Michigan. The overall cost of this phase of the project, according to the minutes, is $9.6 million.
Ludington resident Glenn Walquist spoke in support of the acquisition of additional Sargent Sand property at the Feb. 19 meeting. In the meeting minutes, it was noted:
“He stated that if you have not walked the property, he highly recommends it: ‘It will add a perspective that can never be seen in photographs,’(he said).”
Wayne Andersen, president of the Hamlin Lake Preservation Society, said that many of that organization’s 300 members live very close to the Ludington State Park and the Sargent Sand Mine. Most support the state’s purchase of the Sargent property. That purchase would mean the end of sand mining in the Ludington dunes and bring additional recreational opportunities to legions of campers who visit the area.
Pigeon Hill once towered 200 feet above Muskegon Lake and stood as a barrier between Lake Michigan and the Port City. It was named for the passenger pigeons that used to roost there. Old-timers say that it protected the shoreline community from storms. This dune met the same fate as dunes in Manistee and Ludington. There is now a marina and condo development where that dune once stood.
In Spring Lake, the Ottawa Sand Company sold the dunes that it had mined for seven decades to the Ottawa County Parks Department. Those dunes are now part of a corridor from P.J. Hoffmaster State Park to the Grand River. That purchase was completed in 2019.
In recent news (April 2020), Nugent Sand is reported to be pursuing an agreement with the Muskegon Community Foundation and Land Conservancy of West Michigan. The plan includes a public park on “South Lake” and a campground on “North Lake” in Norton Shores. Both lakes are the result of Nugent’s sand mining operations that began in 1912.
Cooperation to save the sand dunes
The liberty with which sand was dug altered the landscape. Those altered landscapes are now familiar. Preserving the dunes of Lake Michigan and viewsheds in parks along the West Michigan shore is a worthy project. The result of the weighty decisions made by municipalities years ago can still be seen. The willingness of mining companies to work with state agencies, nonprofit organizations and municipalities to acquire and protect these properties today marks a turning point.
Even though the price of sand is up, other sources have been found for industrial sand. Though these new sand mines may alter landscapes where they’re located, they do not lead to the destruction of the unique West Michigan coastal dunes.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been modified to include specific time periods for the word “current” where it appears in the story. This story was originally published in print with the title, “The disappearance of Lake Michigan sand dunes”.
Stewart A. McFerran grew up in Western Michigan roaming the dunes of Lake Michigan. He illuminates current environmental issues in a historic context. He hopes readers will gain an understanding and insight into ways people interact with their environment.
