Portage Lake Region

Historical Marker

The Portage Lake Region

 

Following the fur traders into this region came a few adventurous lumbermen looking for saw-mill sites.  Interested by what he saw in 1840, Joseph Stronach built a dam and water mill on the swift, natural outlet of Portage Lake.

 

Soon homesteaders followed to clear surrounding land for farms.  Frustrated by annual flooding on their land by water needed to run the mill and the slowness of court action against the mill owners, the determined settlers dug by hand a four foot wide cut between the two lakes.  On May 14, 1871 the water of Portage Lake rushed out cutting a channel five hundred feet wide and carrying large trees far out into Lake Michigan.  The leveling of the two lakes created a fine new harbor of refuge accessible through the new channel.

 

Later in 1879, available timber having been depleted, the mill and its holdings were moved to a more desirable location on the East end of the lake, to the site of this marker, thus establishing the village of ONEKAMA.

 

Many meanings have been offered for the Indian word O-NEK-AMA-ENGK: place of great beauty, place of contentment, to carry on the shoulder, and to portage or carry across. The Indians had to portage their canoes around the narrow, swift, rapids of the natural outlet to get from Lake Michigan into Portage Lake. 

 

Submitted by

Bryan Arnold

@nanowhiskers