Saugatuck Tornado 1956
Oral History
"Tracking the Storm," a 2006 Grand Rapids channel 8 WOOD TV documentary about the April 3, 1956 F-5 Tornado that killed 17 and injured 340 people in West Michigan.
This digital copy of the television program is copyrighted material and includes the commercials framing the original broadcast. The documentary is hosted by Storm Team 8 meteorologists Bill Steffen and Craig James. The first segment presented by meteorologist Joe Sullivan begins at Oval Beach and traces the tornado's northewestern path of destruction from the Presbyterian Camp, to the Oval Beach House, and the Kalamazoo Light House. Joe Sullivan interviews Gene Schoeneich at the Cook-Bennett mansion (Gene's father was the mansion's caretaker) and Jack Sheridan at the site of the lighthouse.

2024.41.335
This tornado destroyed the Stoughton Hall at the Presbyterian Camps, the Beach House at Oval Beach, the Lighthouse, homes and farms. The broadcast team rates the 1956 tornado as an F-5 (the highest possible) and theorizes that the damage was actually the work of two tornadoes.
Weather, extreme
Winthers, Sally
Mar 27, 2006
27
DVD version
5 in
5 in
AWS/VidArch SSD/DVD originals drawer
Kalamazoo Lighthouses 1839/1858/1956-presentCook-Bennett-Denison Mansion b.1916/1920Sheridan, John "Jack" O. 1938-Schoeneich, James Carl 1927-1992Schoeneich, Eugene "Gene"Saugatuck Beach House
Torando April 3, 1956
06/21/2025
06/22/2025