James Fenimore Cooper Legends

In 1848 New York author, James Fenimore Cooper, credited by many as the first American novelist, published a book entitled Oak Openings or the Bee Hunter. The setting for the novel is the mouth of the Kalamazoo River during the War of 1812. Readers of the story, looking around the area, often came upon sites, which they labeled as probable locations for certain scenes in the book. Some of these locations were copied into old Chamber of Commerce brochures. It is true that Cooper had at least one area connection, H. H. Comstock, an early owner of the Kalamazoo River lighthouse site, was married to the author’s niece. Through Comstock he had invested some money in western lands, and visited as near as Kalamazoo to try to recoup some of his money. Villages all over Michigan claim to have been visited by Cooper. Supposedly the model for the bee hunter lived in Kalamazoo. On visits to Michigan Cooper is said to have stayed with a judge in Schoolcraft, at the Walker Tavern at Cambridge Junction and at his niece’s home in Otsego. There are also tales that he stayed at Singapore where he wore a raccoon hat with the tail attached, and stayed on the second floor away from Indians who peeked into the ground floor windows. It is also said that he frequented the Tisdale house on Ferry Street and used its surroundings as a setting in one of his novels. However, scholars who have studied Cooper’s letters and diaries have concluded that none of the events mentioned above ever took place, nor did he ever travel in Michigan west of Kalamazoo.