Mack’s landing

Location: Riverside Road, Saugatuck Township
Date: 1885

The Indian Peach Orchard site is believed to be the location of the first area peach orchard, planted by Indians near the point where Peach Orchard Creek flows into the Kalamazoo River up river from Saugatuck about four miles near the foot of 62nd Street. Became location of American Fur Company trading post and early settlement of Shashaguay tribe (Ottawas) under their chief. This tribe moved across the river the Indian Point.

Mack’s Landing is a flat spot the same location on the bank of the Kalamazoo River, near present day 62nd Street and Riverside Road. It was the site of a fur trading post (ca. 1825) operated by Louis Campau who later founded Grand Rapids. It is named after a later owner, James McCormick, a fisherman and fur trader who kept his canoe at this site in the 1830s. It later became an important logging post and a shipping point for tanbark and fruit for local farmers, including Philetus Purdy, whose farmhouse is shown. A nearby school was named Mack’s Landing School. The main river channel now bypasses this landing.