Over forty shipwrecks have occurred along Pentwater beaches. None were more tragic than the 1940 Armistice Day sinkings, which drowned 59 Great Lakes sailors. On that black night in November, a storm with sustained winds of 80 mph, and gusts exceeding 110 mph, caught three massive steel lake freighters just off Pentwater.

The two largest, the Anna C. Minch and Wm. B. Davoc, sank with all hands. Nearby, a third freighter, the Novadoc, with 17 of its crew still aboard, was being slowly pounded to pieces by waves estimated to have reached 30 feet in height. Local fisherman carried out the rescue of the Novadoc crew and became national heros. The Pentwater Historical Society museum has a collection of artifacts commemorating the storm and rescue.

The founders of Pentwater were E.R. Cobb and Andrew Rector. In 1853 they built two buildings – a boarding house near the current water tower and a lumber mill, both on the south end of Hancock St. Who was Charles Mears?

Lumber baron, Charles Mears, built the channel to Lake Michigan and placed his sawmill on its north bank in 1855. A store and boarding house were built next nearby. Mears called this site Middlesex and included all of the land east to Hancock street. Middlesex was absorbed into Pentwater when the village was formed in 1867.

In 1858 Mears established a ferry service across the channel. He also built a 660 foot long pier out into Lake Michigan from the north bank of the channel so that the largest boats on the lake could haul lumber to his yards in Chicago and drop off cargo for the village. In 1920, Mears’ daughter, Carrie, deeded 600 feet of beach north of the channel to the state of Michigan as the beginning of the present Charles Mears State Park.

In 1868, the Federal Government began a 20-year project to provide a wider, deeper channel than Charles Mears had been able to achieve since he built his “river” in 1855. A lighthouse was built on the south pier with a catwalk leading to it so that the keeper could tend the oil lamp. A life saving station was built on the north pier in 1887.

Visitors could watch the crew’s weekly drills. Many rescues are credited to the station. In 1915 the Coast Guard took over. Operations continued at various levels until 1958 when the station site was cleared. Only the flag tower, on which flags and lights warned vessels on the lake of dangerous weather, remains. The historic piers are now public promenades. The station site is a park. The piers are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1857 there were approximately 800 Ottawa, Chippewa, and Pottawatamie Native Americans in Pentwater. Carl Schrumpf discovered Indian Mounds near Pentwater, and the valuable collection that resulted from his find is now housed in the Kent County Museum in Grand Rapids.

The ferry was a wooden scow on which one could ride across the channel to catch the train or visit friends in Frenchtown. It cost five cents for a person, ten cents for a man with a horse, 25 cents for a team and wagon, two cents each for cattle, sheep, and pigs.

The ferry operated from 1858 until 1926. It ran on a heavy wire cable stretched across the channel from shore to shore. The ferry man would pull the scow across the channel with a large wooden mallet slotted to fit the cable. Occasionally, passengers would help.

In 1891, G.A. Williams arrived from Chicago and started promoting the idea of Pentwater as a summer resort second to none on the Great Lakes. The centerpiece was to be a huge hotel, complete with its own steamer service, direct from the hotel doorstep to Chicago. Williams was to build the hotel, named after his wife, Valeria. At Williams’ request the township chipped in with money and land.

In 1892 a huge white block structure, complete with castellated tower, was started. In 1893 building stopped. Accusations flew. Williams left town and the town was left with a hollow shell. Someone called it the “White Elephant” and the name stuck The White Elephant was destroyed in 1927, Williams was forgotten. However, his vision of Pentwater as a world class resort was not. Most beach homes and resort development date from this time and from the vision of the promoter of the White Elephant.

Indeed, you can come under the spell of Williams’ vision by visiting the former site of the “White Elephant,” now our village green, and watching summer children dance to the sprightly rhythms of our village band — just like G.A. Williams always knew they would.

The Community Hall or as many still call it; the Village or Township Hall, has changed little since it was built. There have been alterations along the eaves, the windows, and the door on the first floor. Next door to the Village hall was the G. T. Sands General Store. It burned in 1920 and was never rebuilt. The space that the store once occupied is now Bell Park.

The Centenary United Methodist Church is the oldest in Pentwater, built in 1867. It burned down in 1875, and was rebuilt with bricks from the Pentwater Brick Yard. The Catholic Church was built in 1868. There is no record of its completion or dedication.

The Baptist Church was built in 1884, but it burned the night before Thanksgiving in 1893. The present church was built in 1895, with Pentwater bricks. St. James Episcopal Church held its first service in September, 1883, and is located near the Baptist Church, and a few blocks away from the Methodist Church.

The Middlesex Brick and Tile Company was incorporated in July of 1883. They made many of the bricks that built Pentwater, including the Village Hall, the Methodist Church, Gustafson’s, Sally Dicks, and many homes. The brick factory was located on Lake Road near the present dead end sign.

In 1887 the Gustafson Building was built for Thomas Collister. Located in the center of Pentwater’s shopping district, it is the largest (and at the time, the only) 3-story building.  Wide white pine lumber was used in its exterior and interior. It was veneered with yellow brick manufactured from clay in a Pentwater brickyard.  The first floor was for stores, the second floor was for offices and meeting rooms. The Mason’s fraternity built the 3rd level and installed the metal (iron) roof, both of which they were to own and repair.  On the outside of the building is the built-in and unremovable Mason’s Keystone “Isle of Man”.  The Masons owned the title until 1960 when they moved one door north to 177 S Hancock.

On March 29, 1888, the woodwork in the new Masonic Hall was completed by Theodore Mero and Peter Labonta.  The beautiful design was finished in red oak. It was massive and extremely heavy.

On August 23, 1888, Thomas Collister sold the building to Charles Mears for $4,000.00.

In 1926 a bridge replaced the ferry. It was a former railroad bridge moved from Elk Rapids, and given to the village by the Pere Marquette Railway Company. Its installation across the channel was celebrated as the village’s greatest civic improvement of the century. It was a swing bridge, requiring a day and a night attendant to let water traffic in and out of the harbor.

A favorite pastime for people was to dive off the center supports of the bridge when it was in the closed position. A diving board was installed for the purpose. It was the village’s most expensive public utility, needing constant repair to keep it in service. In the early 1950s the bridge was swung open for the last time and it was removed from the channel.

The Pentwater Furniture Factory was built when the lumber boom ended. Furniture was shipped to all parts of the United States. The company employed 50 to 100 men. Later it was sold to the Sands and Maxwel Lumber Company and was renamed the Pentwater Bedstead Company. In 1898 the boiler exploded in the middle of the day, killing three men and injuring several others. The roof of the factory was said to have lifted right into midair. Bricks flew as far away as three blocks.

First Newspaper April 20, 1861. By this time there were three stores, two steam-powered saw mills, one printing press, several fisheries, two lawyers, one pastor, and 300 residents. Pentwater was still the only village in Oceana County.

March 16, 1867 Pentwater became incorporated, but the area west of Hancock Street was still called Middlesex for a long time.

Eldred’s Shingle Mill was the largest mill in the State of Michigan, and some say in the whole Country. It was located on the South side of Pentwater Lake. It burned on May 6, 1872, and was never rebuilt.

In December, 1871, the first telegraph message was transmitted to and received from Manistee, Michigan.

Did you know…

…that the name “Pentwater” was probably given by the Indians? It presumably means penned-up waters, or in another interpretation “pent” is Latin for “five”… plus water… meaning five bodies of water… (1), the river (1), the flats (2), Pentwater Lake (3), the channel (5), Lake Michigan. Access to Pentwater from the South to North, or North to South, runs entirely along these bodies of water.

…that land in Pentwater was first purchased for $1.00 or $1.25 per acre?

…that the smoke from the Chicago fire could be seen in Pentwater?

…that Weare Township, to the east of Pentwater, is named for Dr. D. G. Weare, the first doctor in Pentwater?

…that ice was harvested from Pentwater Lake to keep everyone’s ice-box cool?

…that Pentwater Lake is two miles long and 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile wide?