SAUGATUCK, Mich. (via WOOD TV 8) — The long fight over the development of prized land running along dunes, Lake Michigan and the Kalamazoo River goes back more than 100 years.
It was 5 o'clock April 27, 1904 when a notary public in Kane County, Illinois, recorded an agreement between then-property owner Marguerite Cook and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The agreement allowed the corps to build and maintain retaining walls along the channel between the Kalamazoo River and Lake Michigan.
In the last century, that wall and channel has allowed navigation and tourist access to Saugatuck.
"Well, it's important to the three communities that are here and that includes the harbor area also," said Saugatuck Township Clerk Brad Rudrich. "We're a big boating community, it brings in the tourists, a lot of tourists come in for a lot of events like our Venetian Festival which will be next week."
About eight years ago, the Army Corps rebuilt the crumbling walls.
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