We called the western swamp area "Mucky Harbor," but that is probably only a Hofman-Hoogstrate term. We'd take a canoe into Mucky Harbor and, yes, we would pick the white and yellow water lilies before it was illegal to do so.

The Blue Horizon, the Bowery, the Nook-in-the-Woods, and the Bait Shop also played an important role in our vacations. My mom and aunts would do the laundry at the Blue Horizon, and we kids would walk to the Blue Horizon to get candy or the GR Press, or to ride the coin operated horse out front.

Speaking of the horse. We knew we had arrived at the lake each year when the first person in the car spotted the horse!

Big Star Lake was quite primitive back in the '50s and '60s and I remember having huge kettles of water heated on the stove to be poured into the big kitchen sinks for our Saturday night baths. Of course, there were no telephones in the cottages back then, and with my father being a minister, he would have to leave his name at the Blue Horizon in case someone in his church/parish happened to die or be in need of immediate pastoral care. The Blue Horizon personnel would then drive down Chapel Road and alert my dad that he had a telephone call. This didn't happen often, but there were a few times that this scenario played out.

One last memory was that of July of 1969. Only a few people had TVs in their cottages, and so many people crowded into the Klassen cottage to watch Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin take the first steps on the moon. Each summer, Gerry Klassen, always interested in space, often had a telescope pointing into the heavens. It was through his telescope that I first saw Jupiter's moons. He also meticulously built a beautiful wooden canoe, which was passed on the Marv Huizingh, which was further passed along to my brother Bill Hoogstrate. We now have this relic at our own cottage in the north bay, near the current MELs.

 Thank you for this opportunity to reminisce. Deborah Hoogstrate-Cooney
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 Maria Wetzel 

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 Cherylann Czuchna-Miller

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 Chery

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Hi, My name is Tootsie. My sister Mildred and John Merlo owned the Bowery, the rollerskate rink, the store, and the cottages at Big Star Lake during the late 40s. I'm not sure when it was sold, but she owned it for quite some time. I spent many summers working with my sisters, my brother, and many nieces. We traveled to Michigan from West Virginia every summer to work. I worked at the soda and ice cream shop. We sold ice, worms, and many other things. The undated photo of the store is circa 1945. I have many wonderful memories of spending my summers there. I remember people coming from Wisconsin, and various other places to camp in the cottages. There was winter fishing, a lot of rollerskating, and boating. I hope to locate some old photographs and brochure of Big Star Lake. I enjoyed looking your website. 

Tootsie
  (posted 14 July 2008)

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My aunt Mildred Merlo and her husband John bought The Bowery in 1947 from Stan and Doris Bayak. At that time it was very rustic with no electricity or indoor plumbing to the cottages (13 of them).  By the time I arrived in the summer of 1949, my handi-man uncle installed electrical service and indoor plumbing to most of the cottages. It was a magical place to me that summer. 

We had a store which had everything from groceries, fresh cut prime meats, fishing gear, fish and hunting licenses, souveniors and even some clothes.

There were 2 gas pumps across from the store in front of the oil house which sold oil for autos as well as oil mixtures for outboard motors.There was a boat house for boat and motor rentals. An icehouse for 24# and 50# blocks of ice sold to the public and delivered free to the cottages that were not yet equipped with refrigerators. We would have fun being in the bed of my uncle's 1949 chevy 1 1/2 ton stake-bed truck when he delivered ice around dinner time to the cottages. There was also a large outhouse on the property which was used before the plumbing was installed.

But best of all was the roller skating rink, with popular music blaring while all the kids/teens skated.  A huge soda parlor was attached to the rink whereby you could skate right in. My younger aunts Tootsie and Diane who were young teenagers worked there,  that's where all the action was in the evening when the teens skated and hung out. Great hamburgers (fresh ground from my uncles butcher shop)  as well as every ice cream and soda treats all made from scratch.

Along with many family and some close friends my aunt hired about 6 teens from Baldwin to work for the   summer, I believe they stayed there at the Bowery and she paid them a lump some after the season was over.

Since I was too young to work, I was able to have fun. I learned so many things that summer. I learned to swim in the lake as well as fish and row a boat. I learned to roller skate  with the clip on skates we rented out, very few people had shoe skates then; I did this in the afternoon when only a few people were there. My aunts took me horse back riding at the stables up the road from the Bowery, I never mastered that skill. There was an old bike I found that had been left by the previous owners and it was quite a challenge to learn to ride on the inner property since the roads and paths were just sand.  But I really got a fast lesson one early evening just at dusk when riding thru the tent section of the property,when all of a sudden the bike and myself were parted. The occupants were startled when there pup tent collapsed and a skinny little kid was being strangled by the cables./They were more than startled when my aunt found out about it, since their tent was sent up in the wrong position.  She was one tough cookie, never raised her voice, but you knew she meant business, everyone was a little afraid of her. She had a great presence.

Since I had so much fun that summer, I decided to stay there and go to school (5th grade) at Carrs a country school with 3 grades in one classroom.

Everything changed after labor day when all the vacationers left, it was quit and a bit lonely.   We looked forward to deer hunting season, the store would open for a couple of weeks with limited supplies and a few cottages were rented to the hunters.

I learned to play baseball and basketball with the Bayak boys across the street. I would go bike riding with the croft kids who lived at there resort near the Bowery on another lake.  We would attempt to ride around Big Star lake, but never made it. We would always have to call and get a ride and have our bikes brought back on a p/u truck.

In the winter we would ice fish, my uncle drove the truck on the frozen lake and we towed a little ice fishing house on to the lake, it was fun.

I returned to WV that summer because I missed my family and friends.  But 5 years later I returned for another year.

I really enjoyed the web sight.

Till next time

  Ikey
  (posted 15 July 2008)

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From Jack Laansma of Mt Prospect, Illinois

My family began vacationing at Big Star Lake in 1936 when I was 3 years old. Our first rented cottage was on Pine Grove Beach and then began vacationing on Minising Point beginning at the western end. We gradually worked east until my dad bought a cottage in 1950 from the Waldmillers. In the early years we traveled from Grand Rapids with my parents, four of us children, and one or two dogs. Prior to the chapel being built, church services were held in cottages and outside on folding chairs. In the early days there were only a handful of motor boats and most people made do with a row boat. Fishing evolved from drifting a Junebug Spinner with pork rind, to trolling a small Flatfish, to casting Plunkers, Jitterbugs, Yellow Shannons, Bass Orenos, and finally using plastic worms and live crawlers. I spent a lot of time at my folks cottage from 1950 until my mother sold it in 1994 to Don Passenger. My largest bass was a 20-½” Largemouth Bass weighing 4-½ # caught with a Shakespeare Swimming Mouse on August 16, 1948. In the early days most of the bass were largemouth, but later on all we caught were smallmouths. Also, in the 1930s and 1940s we only knew of one Northern Pike being caught. By the 1950s we could almost expect a Northern each time we fished. The last time I fished from the cottage with my son and son-in-law in 1993 we caught pike, bass, and walleye.  How the lake had changed over the years.  The early cottages also didn't have electric pumps for getting water.  My older brothers Don and Marv had to pump water by hand into holding tanks.  Flushing a toilet was an event back then as the tank then had to be pumped full again.

My sister, Beatrice Scheltema, did a history of Minising Point on Big Star Lake dealing especially with our cottage as follows:

In the 1920s Minising Point was owned by Frank and Nellie Burtless. They had purchased this property from the state of Michigan. They platted the area and mapped in right-of-ways and beach paths. These right-of-ways were public domain. A ten foot wide path along the beach was dedicated to the public. Consequently, the cottage owners on this beach do not own the lake. Their property ends at the bottom of the bank. This plat was approved on 2 Sept 1924.

Olaf Ostman bought lot 7, block 2 in 1925. The Ostmans had three daughters; Pauline (Waldmiller), Hilda (Gardiner), and Dorothy (DeVoe). They built a fisherman’s cottage. It was on cement blocks with no windows on the ground floor, only wooden flaps. The interior was one large room with a toilet in a small closet. There was no paneling, only open studs. There was no ceiling but stairs went to a loft where they slept. This was open and could be seen from downstairs. It was simple but functional. I am not sure when Olaf died but his daughter, Hilda and husband Cliff Gardiner took over the cottage. A second daughter, Dorothy with her husband, Earl DeVoe, bought property on Miller’s Point on Big Star Lake, right around the corner from the Odd Fellows and Rebecca Camp. About 1947 or 1948 the other daughter, Pauline and her husband, Fred Waldmiller bought the cottage from the Gardiners.

Earl and Dorothy DeVoe were neighbors of ours in Grand Rapids. I believe we heard about Big Star Lake from them. They had a son, Richard, who was my age. I visited him a few times at their cottage. The DeVoes owned a Chris Craft speedboat and Dick gave me a few rides when we were older.

Then, as stated above, my folks, John and Jo Laansma bought the cottage from the Waldmillers in 1950. My mother would only be happy if my dad had windows put in as the cottage got quite dark on rainy days when the flaps had to be lowered. So he had windows put in on the sides and the front. There were windows in the corner where the kitchen area was located. In 1951 I helped my dad put in a ceiling and paneling on the walls. Later he put knotty pine paneling on the walls. Later projects included a bathroom with shower, a larger back porch, an enclosed front porch, cement patio in front, and an attached utility shed on the back.

While growing up I was a friend of the Gardiner’s son Norman. We used to catch frogs and turtles and generally do what small boys do at a lake. Norman had a sister Elaine and a dog named Sassie.  We would sometimes walk to the Bowery with our older brothers and sisters and go roller skating. My brothers would often play the pinball machines there. In the 1940s and 1950s we bought most of our groceries at the Blue Horizon Camp Store. Later on we bought at the Bowery Store.

Some of the same families came the same time each summer so we children became acquainted with other children our age and used to play card games or board games on rainy days. Some of these were Phil and Chuck Ryskamp and their cousins Elaine and Joyce. Many names I have forgotten. I remember sermons at the chapel by Rev. Arthur Hoogstrate and Rev. Mulder. I was acquainted with Barbara Hoogstrate and remember that she had several sisters. We did a lot of swimming and several times we walked as a group around the lake. One of the fathers would meet us on the other side of the lake with our lunches. Several years we finished the vacation time with a treasure hunt created by some of the fathers followed by a hot dog roast on the beach in front of what was then the Guy Husband cottages. The treasure hunt would take place after dark by using flashlights. One year one of the clues was by some yellow flowers in the woods. Unfortunately these particular flowers closed up at night and we had a tough time.

Back then the mail boxes were all on the main road, in our case across from where the Big Star Lake Chapel now stands. Part of the routine was to walk to the mail boxes and wait for the mailman. Later the mail was delivered to mail boxes on the road in back of our cottages.

When I was a teenager I remember the Golden Bun restaurant. Although the customers were few and far between, the owner always gave us a number when we ordered and would shout it out when the order was ready. I remember that he startled some motorists driving by when he shouted out the numbers. The homemade “golden buns” were very good, especially with a fat hamburger in them.

In the 1960s and 1970s my wife and I and our two children rented a cottage at what was then Snug Harbor Resort on the Southeast part of the lake just West of Canterbury Park. From there we could also visit my parents on Minising Point. My son and daughter enjoyed the swimming and such. We usually went in July so could take in the Troutorama carnival in Baldwin and enjoy a Jones Ice Cream cone. When our son, John, was a baby he developed a fever while at Snug Harbor. We drove to a hospital in Reed City and the doctor who examined him was married to Barbara Hoogstrate.

I miss the cottage but I still get together once a year with my older brother, Marvin, and do some trout fishing on the Pere Marquette River and its branches. Over the years we have caught many brown and rainbow trout from the Middle Branch of the Pere Marquette River. In September of 2003 my wife and I rented a cottage from Ken Jipping and spent a week fishing and reading. This cottage was near our former cottage. It was fun to spend some time on Big Star Lake again. I managed to catch one bass and lost a couple of fish of unknown species.  The Jipping cottage was formerly owned by Guy Husband, who owned about four rental cottages in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.

 From Jack Laansma of Mt Prospect, Illinois
    (posted 15 July 2008)

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Hi there-

I am lost in my families history...they have all died and I am trying to find as many little details as I can to piece this ancestry together. Our cottage was on Millers(?) Point-Next to the "oddfellows"...I have numerous pictures-it was built by my great grandfather or great great...a log cabin that still makes me feel all warm inside. Devoe is the name...Earl,William,Ella(Afton)Russell and June DeVoe(he had his own cottage on the lake I believe) and Richard(my dad). They always had really amazing Chris Craft woodies and were quite a bunch of wild things as I was told. I remember hearing that great grandpa built it...that would be William Elias DeVoe-but it is all so foggy that I was hoping you had some info that might fill me in. We sold the cottage-tough memories for my father and the desire to sail led him to do this in the late 60's I believe. We sold to the DenBrabers-I still remember the name because as a child I hated leaving that beautiful cottage and they seemed like the very devil to me :) Anyway...I know that my dad pretty much grew up on the lake although he lived in Grand Rapids...The Millers had a cottage behind us-off the lake-I still have the little Hummel they gave me when I was born(1957). I have a "rules of this tavern" notes book filled with notes that people wrote when they visited.

Anyway......Any direction you know of that I can go in to find out who actually built the cottage or any other info would be great...

Look forward to hearing from you-

Julie DeVoe
From: podamore@comcast.net
Subject: DeVoe cottage next to Odd Fellow/"millers" point
(Posted 1 December 2008)

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