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c h a p t e r 3 Steamships and Car Ferries of Muskegon ‫ﱛﱛﱜﱛﱛ‬ The low-pressure steamer Huron would leave Muskegon for Grand Haven and Chicago onTuesday,Thursday and Saturday at 1 p.m. during the season of 1859. Muskegon Reporter, May 5, 1859 (First advertisement for a steamer carrying passengers and freight from Muskegon to Chicago.) Along the eastern shores of Lake Michigan, the dunes stretch for miles in seeming sameness. But a closer look over time reveals change—sometimes subtle, other times dramatic, but always unstoppable. As in human affairs, change is the one constant in the nature of the dunes. The grains of sand are blown into one formation or another by the winds that come howling down from an arctic air mass or tearing up from the southwest plains. They form new dunes that build up and encroach on the nearby woodlands, eventually killing stands of mature trees. In time, the tall, whitened trunks protrude through the sand as “ghost forests.” Wind and water also combine forces to change the land formations. When the lake’s water levels are high, pounding waves erode the shore, undermining bluffs and menacing the homes and summer cottages built atop them. Along the beaches and at the mouths of channels, the breakers and currents build up then wash out sandbars, shifting their hidden locations daily. Nothing stays the same along this lakeshore. Most lumbermen of Muskegon did not see change coming. In the early years, those in the business were confident the stands of timber would play out after about five hundred years of constant harvesting. By the mid-1880s, this prediction was readjusted to a shorter time span, but many still thought the lumber business would continue at least for another generation.1 But when the boom ended in the mid-1890s, the city was caught in uncertain times. Rather than risk unemployment, a number of men in the industry—mill hands, booming men, lumberjacks—left town to continue work in the trade, which still flourished in northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and out west in California and Oregon. Even some of the lumber barons left town with their fortunes. Those who 53 chapter 3 remained had to ask some hard questions: What new direction should Muskegon take? What new industries could be attracted to the area? Could they create steady jobs? Charles Hackley and his partner, Thomas Hume, were two of the prominent lumbermen who chose to stay in Muskegon and help the city make the transition to other industries. As early as 1879, they and others started investing in other manufacturing firms, predominantly wood related, such as the Temple Manufacturing Company, which made curtain rollers, and a furniture factory.2 With the support of the local board of trade, they invested capital in more diverse firms: the Muskegon Chemical Fire Engine Company, the Chase Brothers Piano Company (which later became the Chase-Hackley Piano Company), and the Muskegon Cracker Company. Some of these survived into the early twentieth century, but others folded after a few years.3 In addition, Hackley acted as trustee of monies that were raised and then invested on a short-term basis, with the interest and some of the principal forming the financial fund known as the “bonus plan.” The bonus plan administered by Hackley, Thomas Hume, representing the city’s Chamber of Commerce (the former board of trade), and John Torrent of the city’s Common Council, was used to attract existing businesses to relocate their operations to Muskegon. While the city fathers primarily sought to attract existing, successful companies, they also offered bonus plan funds to promising entrepreneurs who wanted to set up new firms in Muskegon. Two men who benefited from this assistance were A. W. Shaw and Louis C. Walker. In 1899, after working in the furniture business in Grand Rapids, they decided to establish their own firm in Muskegon, manufacturing office furniture and filing systems . The Shaw Walker Company went on to become one of the major industries in the Port City. All told, the efforts of Muskegon’s business leaders paid off; by the turn of the century, a number of new and diverse industries had arrived in Muskegon and offered employment to thousands. Muskegon was not the only lumber town that had to face this drastic economic downturn. While some west Michigan boomtowns never saw the wealth and influence they enjoyed in their prime, they nevertheless found new sources of revenue. Manistee— Muskegon...

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