7. The Treaty Tree

Location: West side of Holland Street, between Francis and Spear Streets, Saugatuck

Date: 1830s-1840s

Local historian May Francis Heath related the story that William G. Butler, the founder of Saugatuck, used this maple tree on  as a meeting place with local Indigenous chiefs to negotiate land-use and other issues. In 1890, Mrs. Heath blocked the cutting of the tree by village workers by sitting under it, with baby in arms, until the tree cutters grew weary of her protest and moved on.