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3. WAR TIME
4. PEACE TIME
5. ARBORETUM
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Eddie and Rex @1946
The History of Lake Bluff
By Margaret (Gray) Vickery and Bob Gray
Following is a reprint of the article announcing the gift of Lake Bluff to the Michigan Audubon Society as it appeared in the MANISTEE NEWS ADVOCATE, Friday, January 22, 1988.
PART 4
PEACE—A TIME FOR EXPANSION
By the end of WWII the stables had been added, older barns and outbuildings removed and the beginnings of a new cattle feeding operation launched.
Activities centering around the stables and horses increased significantly. Margaret had a pony and Bob a horse. Eddie and Trudy both rode regularly. Buggy rides in the summer and sleigh rides in the winter were common fare. The annual Manistee Forest Festival on the Fourth of July found Margaret and Bob in the parade with horses and pony carts. Birthday parties and New Year’s Eves meant sleigh rides with 30-40 cheering, happy revelers on board.
Dike construction
—River Ranch@1950
The expansion from a few head of beef cattle to a full scale cattle operation was a significant move into commercial feed-cattle business. Eddie had joined with Labe Peters (son of the Eastlake Peters Sawmill family) and had purchased the 300+ acres of marshlands on M-55 at the mouth of the Big Manistee River.
An extensive dike was built starting at the railroad grade on the west and extending along the river to the east and then south to high ground. The water depth of the enclosed canals (originally a log sorting and storage basin for the Peters Mill) was controlled by a pumping system that enabled the adjacent land to be “sub-irrigated.” It was this land that provided the pasture for up to 400 head of year-ling Hereford caves in the peak years of operation.
Stables @1947
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TOO MANY HOLES IN THE DIKE
Unfortunately in the early 1950s fate dealt a lethal blow to the River Ranch, as it had come to be known. The dikes broached and were no longer able to hold the rising Lake Michigan waters back. Mother Nature reclaimed her marsh.
Eddie and Labe closed the doors on their venture in 1953 and donated the entire “ranch” to Michigan State University for a wetlands bird sanctuary. Today the Manistee chapter of the Michigan Audubon Society has a lease on these acres, has built an observation tower on the east end of the dyke, and can be regularly found observing the birds and other wildlife activities on these wetlands. It is a fine adjunct to the forest and shoreline habitats at Lake Bluff.
River Ranch @1952
Phalaow @1963
LAKE BLUFF ARABIANS
In 1960 the Grays ventured into the Arabian horse world. A large indoor arena was added to the stables (since torn down). The addition increased the stabling capacity from eight horses to twenty. Although this venture lasted but a few years (terminated by Eddie’s death in 1968), they were memorable for family, friends and townsfolk alike. The Arabian horses that came to lake bluff were the aristocrats of the horse world. They were prize winners.
Zitez, son of Witez II, the world famous stallion commandeered by General George Patton in his infamous raid behind German lines in the waning months of WWII and the foundation of the Arabian horse in the U.S.A., was the grand marshal’s mount in more than a dozen Rose Bowl parades in Pasadena before he came to Manistee.
Dale Shoemaker & Phalaow @1965
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- Phalouma came to Lake Bluff as a reigning North American Grand Champion Mare.
- Raasanne—East Coast Grand Champion Mare
- Phalaow—Michigan and Great Lakes Grand Champion Stallion
These aristocrats of the Arabian horse world were joined by their paddock mates in providing pleasure for all who saw them. They beckoned horse lovers from far and wide to come and see them. They were successful in the show rings of Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Colorado, the East Coast and the Southwest. They brought fame to Lake Bluff and pride to Manistee.
NEXT> 5. ORCHARD TO ARBORETUM
Lake Bluff History
3. WAR TIME
4. PEACE TIME
5. ARBORETUM