Long Lake-Cloverdale Association
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July 2020

South Shore Drive

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As time goes by our original houses and cottages are being replaced with new modern houses. It is interesting to try and determine where the oldest cottages still exist. The Karmes house was probably built around 1925. It was accessed using a trail from the farmhouse located on what is now M-43. That house is still there at the junction of M-43 and Ackers Point Drive.
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There are a couple other cottages located next to the Karmes house that were probably built in the 1940’s. Across the lake near the sandbar is a small stone house built right on the shoreline. It was probably built using stones from the nearby farm fields. I do not know when it was built, but there was a sign at the top of the hill behind it that said: Tuck, Mary, Jingles and Judy. And I believe their last name was Wright. Jingles was their dog. And Judy is the daughter who is listed as the present owner.
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​In the south section of the lake the cottage pictured above now owned by Chuck and Alice Gutzki was built around 1920 for use by the Hines family. Lewis Hines owned all the land now owned by Camp Michawana and they would walk down to the lake during the summer. It appears in some of the old pictures taken from the Ackers Point Resort. 
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​Another picture taken from Acker’s Point shows the cottage now owned by the Hoke family. It was probably built around the same time and would have been difficult to get to until the railroad ties were taken up in 1937/38. Further south from the Hoke cottage are four cottages built right on the shoreline. I have heard reports that the engineers from the railroad were housed in one of them. If that were true, they would have been built before the 1930’s, but I assume the engineers probably would have been located with their families and probably near the end of the rail route in Kalamazoo.
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So, in summary there are about 10 cottages and houses on the lake that were built prior to about 1935. Before 1940 anyone who wanted to spend a little time away from home, which was probably a farm that needed to have the cows milked morning and night, could rent a cottage at Acker’s Point or Dickinson’s Resort. Once World War Two ended people began to have higher incomes and could afford to take vacations and own second houses. And then the building boom took off around Long and other local lakes.

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