Allegan County Heritage Trail Audio Tour and Booklet
Archive
Guidebook and double audio CD of 18 track self-guided audio tours of Allegan County historic sites. The CDs are a supplement to a walking tour booklet and map that describes a "Northern Segment (Saugatuck to Plainwell)" and "Southern Segment (Otsego to Douglas)."
Audio narrated by Brent McDonald with many guest presenters including Kit Lane, John Pahl and Jim Schmiechen. Complete speaker list on CD cover.
Project funded by the Allegan County Tourist Council with thanks to the Allegan County Heritage Trail Advisory Board.
Northern route CD
Track 02:
Kit Lane tells the Singapore story of the fooling a bank gold inspector, the Big Pavilion dances, movie theater, fire and the Mt. Baldhead radar tower.
Track 03:
Kit Lane and John Pahl speaks about River Bluff Park, Old Allegan Road and New Richmond.
John Pahl paints a verbal picture of what the river would have looked like throughout history.
Track 04:
Kit Lane and John Pahl tell about New Richmond and the Swing Bridge founded by John Allen but crashed in the 1830 financial panic.
Track 05: Kit Lane and John Pahl tell of a Civil War style railroad bridge at Hamilton by Fisk and the Trestle bridge in Hamilton Township Park in Western style.
Track 06:
Kit Lane and John Pahl on Netherlands-style Veneklasen two-color brick houses.
Southern route CD
Track 11
Kit Lane on Fennville where corduroy road crossed. Peppermint distillation. Fire. Fruit Production. Fruit canning.
Track 12
Kit Lane on Hutchins Lake and early cottage communities.
Track 13
Kit Lane on peach growing 1870 for Chicago and Milwaukee market. The "yellows" disease inspectors. Hutchins sulfur product Sanocide. 1905 frost.
Track 14
Kit Lane on the Hudson (Company) Centennial Farm ancestor sculpture, 66th Street outside of Fennville, and the Hudson family.
Track 15
Kit Lane on Glen. 1970s. Piers for low water in Kalamazoo and calm weather.
Track 16
Kit Lane on West Site County Park's rocky beach and famous Saugatuck clay formation (clay on top, sand on the bottom)
Track 17
Kit Lane and Bob Simonds on Pier Cove and O.C. Simonds purchased land in 1889 and the yellow Orchard House on the curve at Pier Cove beach. Pier had tracks for hand cars or, later, horse-drawn carts. Later two piers with warehouses before dying out in the 1880s
Track 18
Jim Schmiechen on Douglas, 1851 lumber town by Johnathan Wade. Competition between the Dutcher family to the South and the Wades Dudleyville to the North.
CD self-ejects about half-way through this track.
The booklet begins with a short history of Allegan County, then sections about Ostego, Pine Creek Dam, Allegan, the WWII Prisoner of War camp, Allegan Dam, DNR state game area, the 1930s Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) tree army, Fennville, Hutchins Lake, Hudson Heritage Farm Vista, Glenn, West Side County Park, Pier Cove, Douglas, Saugatuck, River Bluff Park, New Richmond and the Swing Bridge, the Hamilton trestle bridge, flower farms, Dutch Heritage Farms, Hopkins, Wayland, Shelbyville and Gun Lake, Martin and Plainwell.
2022.09.05
"A self-guided tour of discovery and adventure into the history, sights, and sounds of Allegan County" created by the Allegan County Community Foundation in 2003.
164 General local history
Pahl, JohnLane, Kit 1939-2024Simonds, Bob
01/28/2022
01/16/2023