MUSKEGON, MI – Muskegon Lake has been an economic engine, from the early days of lumbering to today’s growing tourism industry, with an extremely important distinction: the latter is based on a clean lake.

The city’s history, it’s economic jumps and bumps, largely are due to the lake. It’s where the lumber mills thrived, it’s where industry located during the booming 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s, and the lake now is where vacationers find respite and future residents will make their homes.

Making the leap from its industrial past meant a significant investment in the cleanup of the lake and its watershed. More than $80 million, much of it governmental funding, has gone into clearing away the toxicity of past abuses.

Related: Great Lakes resurrection: Muskegon Lake transforms from industrial dump to ‘ridiculous’ potential

A Grand Valley State University study found a 6-to-1 return on the investment in the lake’s comeback through increased tourism, recreation and property values.

“Recreational use of the rivers and Muskegon Lake has increased, tourism is up and property values are growing…The Great Lakes are an economic engine and an irreplaceable environmental wonder,” Debra Shore, Great Lakes national program manager for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said during a recent celebration of the lake’s cleanup.

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The Lake Michigan inlet with a natural deep-water port provided a way to get lumber from abundant pine forests and the world beyond. In 1837, the first sawmill set up shop on the lake’s shoreline and soon Muskegon became the “Lumber Queen of the World” – a bustling, wealthy city credited with rebuilding Chicago after the fire of 1871.

When the forests were depleted, the area’s plentiful sand, important in iron casting molds, attracted foundries that served burgeoning heavy industry that located along the shore. That industry was fueled by wartime military production, and continued its boom into the 1970s when industry faded and the city was left with a wrecked shoreline and poisoned waters.

But it was during the 1970s that Muskegon Lake’s storyline began to change, for the better. Environmental activists successfully shut down plans for more lakefront industry. Abandoned industrial sites started to be torn down to make room for gentler uses of the shoreline.

It wasn’t until 2005 that the first major cleanup occurred – the $14.2 million cleanup of Ruddiman Lagoon. Seventeen years later, cleanups have been completed and several new retail and residential projects are in the works to chart a new course for Muskegon Lake.

Follows is a timeline that highlights turning points in the lake’s history:

1837: The first sawmill is built on Muskegon Lake.

1858: Rodgers Iron Manufacturing, later known as Lakey Foundry, locates on Muskegon Lake.

Early 1890s: Sawmills, that swelled in number to nearly 50, begin shutting down, the pine forests having been nearly depleted.

1899: Central Paper Co. builds a paper mill on Muskegon Lake.

1905: Continental Motors Corp, later Teledyne Continental Motors, builds its first engine plant on Water Street near Pine Street.

Early 1940s: Muskegon dubbed an “arsenal of democracy” due to its wartime military production, much of it at Continental Motors, where employment at its lakefront plant grew to 9,000.

1949: The B.C. Cobb coal-fired electric generating plant on Muskegon Lake opens.

1972: Lakey Foundry files for bankruptcy and the city soon after acquires the large foundry and tears it down.

1973: Muskegon County’s wastewater treatment plant opens, significantly improving sewage discharges into Muskegon Lake.

1975: North Star Steel abandons plans to build a plant on Muskegon Lake, leading to a change in thinking about industry on the lake.

1983: Muskegon County acquires a former foundry dump and eventually develops it into the Heritage Landing park and festival grounds.

1987: Muskegon Lake is designated one of 43 Great Lakes “areas of concern” due to heavy degradation from human activity.

1993: Teledyne plant on Muskegon Lake is demolished.

1994: Harbour Towne condominiums on Muskegon Lake are completed.

2002: Shoreline Inn opens as the first hotel on Muskegon Lake.

2005: The first major Muskegon Lake cleanup begins at Ruddiman Lagoon at a cost of $14.2 million.

2015: Construction begins on Terrace Point Landing, a 70-home neighborhood on the site of the sprawling former Teledyne Continental Motors plant on Muskegon Lake.

2016: Pure Muskegon investment group purchases the 120-acre former paper mill property and pledges a mixed-use residential, commercial development instead of industrial use planned by its previous owner, Melching.

2019-21-: Several mixed-use residential/commercial developments on Muskegon Lake are announced, including The Docks, pegged at $100 million; the $250 million Adelaide Pointe; and the $110 million Harbor 31.

2020: The Cobb electric plant is demolished, four years after it ceased operations.

2022: State and federal officials gather at the Muskegon Lake shoreline to announce the completion of $80 million in Muskegon Lake cleanup activities and the impending removal of the lake as an “area of concern.”

Transformation of Muskegon Lake celebrated with the end of cleanup efforts

Muskegon Lake nears ‘huge achievement’ of leaving federal list of toxic hot spots

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