In 1751, a Jesuit Mission was formed in Manistee. In 1830 the village of Manistee was one of fifteen Ojibwe (Odawa/Ottawa) villages that lined the shores of Lake Michigan. Later it became an Odawa Reservation – until the settlers came in full force and turned it into a logging settlement that grew to over 10,000 people. Until they brought down too many trees and the population fell to less than 3,000 for a time. Now, at over 6,000, we are seeing major changes taking place again.
When I was growing up, Manistee housed five public grade schools, a junior high and high school and two religion-based schools, and they were all full. Now the baby boomer children have grown up and many of their children have sought lives and jobs elsewhere. We are down to one public grade school, a middle school, the high school, a small alternative school, and two shrinking religion-based schools.
There was barely any traffic on Sunday afternoons in those days. Businesses closed, most people went to church, and then went home for a Sunday meal – often the biggest meal of the week and sometimes other family members would join them. They would stay home and maybe play cards. These days, you might get lucky and drive around town on a Sunday with less traffic – unless it’s a big tourist weekend like the Fourth of July – or pretty much most summer Sundays now.
When tourism first started to pick up, the locals could calculate how busy the traffic would be by the time of the year. Memorial Day weekend began the heavier traffic times, peaking with the Forest Festival (4th of July), and then it tapered somewhat but continued through Labor Day weekend. After which, it felt a little bit like a comforting ghost town – especially Sundays.
As we watched the old high school being taken down last year and a new, huge hotel being built at one of the primary beaches, it made me reminiscent of the log cabin style shelter house that once occupied the teen beach. Now, both beaches have new shelter houses, condos stretch across what was once the teen beach, which created a channel that cut out the then-only road at that popular beach, the large hotel has been raised at the other beach and plans for a huge outdoor music venue is in the offing.
It is kind-of amazing to watch the changes that take place over time. Sometimes it is exciting. Sometimes it can be frustrating or even scary, but change is inevitable. In our towns and our lives. Most of it is good, I think. Change keeps us thinking, growing, and maturing; forces us to not stagnate.
As far as Manistee is concerned, I hope it is all a good thing, even though it is hard for some of us to watch the beautiful beaches become tourist spots instead of family spots. But such is life. What once was one thing, becomes something else and sometimes it changes back at a time in the future. Like ever-changing tides, or shadows as a day ages, we are always evolving. Let us curve with the changes like sand on beaches being blown by the wind and mold into something beautiful and not be angry or bitter about what we cannot stop. Progress haunts our steps, but it need not haunt our hearts.
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