Beulah — In beautiful Benzie County lies Crystal Lake, one of the state’s best. Crystal Lake gets its name from its water, which is so clear you can see more than 40 feet down on a good day. Its picturesque shoreline is surrounded by beautiful cottages and lake houses.
It’s a perfect example of Up North living. But it hasn’t always been like that. Before the tourists and the cottages, Crystal Lake was surrounded by swamps and had basically no shoreline. The reason it has become such a destination today is entirely thanks to a man named Archibald Jones and his hare-brained plan to turn Crystal Lake into a new hub of industry.
Jones was an example of American ingenuity. He was a farmer, estate manager, horse trader, carriage maker, and bootstrap engineer. After working on the Erie Canal, he and his family moved west until they hit Benzie County in 1872.
When he saw Crystal Lake, which at the time was called White Cap Lake due to the white-capped waves that often formed in the middle of it, he had an idea. At the time, Michigan needed new harbors to form safe harbors to move goods inland and support the logging industry.
Archibald had the idea to connect the port town of Frankfort to Crystal Lake via the Betsie River. Crystal Lake would make a perfect inland harbor due to its depth and size. This project would make Frankfort very prosperous and Archibald a very rich man.
It would also allow for more lumber to be shipped to the iron foundry in Frankfort, increasing its output. So, in 1873, he formed the Benzie County River Improvement Company. He sold stock, made plans, and got to work.
If everything went perfectly, the final plan was for two different canals, one on the north side of the lake, and the other on the south. There would also be a series of locks to control it all. The company started first with the southern canal.
They cleared obstructions like downed trees, removed vegetation, dredged the river, and also built a small dam between the river and the lake to hold back the water. Eventually, the lake and the river would be fully connected.
Unfortunately, Archibald made a critical mistake. At the time, Crystal Lake was 38 feet higher than Lake Michigan. When the small dam was constructed to hold back the water before a bigger one was built, it simply couldn’t do it for long.
The large waves broke the dam. In an instant, 68 billion gallons of water flowed through the outlet, rushing out to Lake Michigan. Crystal Lake dropped 20 feet, almost instantly destroying Archibald’s plan. The harbor and canal system would never happen.
But even though it destroyed Archibald’s dreams, the lake losing 20 feet of water exposed a beautiful ring of beaches and land suitable for building. This loss allowed the town of Beulah to be built.
Roads were built, telegraph (and later telephone) lines were set up, and cherry orchards were planted. In the aftermath of the flooding, there was a period where the water level was in flux due to uncertainties of what level to keep the lake at.
But eventually, they settled on a seasonal system. The level would be lowered in the winter by a small amount to control erosion, and it would be allowed to rise in the summer to allow boaters to better enjoy the water.
Instead of another industrial town that would have ended up like Detroit, Saginaw, Cincinnati, or any other Rust Belt city left behind after World War II, the “tragedy” of Crystal Lake made Crystal Lake into what it is today. In a flash, Crystal Lake went from just another port to a veritable paradise on earth.
So if you ever make it up to Crystal Lake and find yourself enjoying the water, the beach, or the beautiful views, say thank you to Archibald Jones: the man who in his failure made Crystal Lake better than he could have ever dreamed.
Jack Ducote is a writer who loves fishing, hunting, the outdoors, and of course, Michigan. He writes under Hemlock Hobo on Substack.
