This is Part 3 (covering years 1950 to the present) of an interactive chronology of Campbell Park, the Village of Pentwater, and vicinity.
To see Part 1 (covering years up to 1900), click here.
To see Part 2 (covering years 1900 to 1950), click here.
Please e-mail any comments, corrections, additions, or additional links to geovisual@comcast.net. Thank you.

• 1950 (May 27) - Rosabell CAMPBELL McCartney [1894-1950] (oldest of the five Campbell children) dies at her home in Phoenix, Arizona.

 
1952 (September 6) - The S.S. Badger is launched in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, and will begin daily service to and from Ludington, Michigan. This "car ferry" is now the last coal-burning steamship on the Great Lakes (although its sister ship, the S.S. Spartan, remains tied up in Ludington and could be returned to service). Formerly, there were hundreds of "steamers" on the lakes, and smoke from several was a common sight at Campbell Park for many decades.
 
• 1953 (June 21) - Mable VAN METER Ames [1869-1953] (wife of Edward Scribner AMES) dies in Chicago.

 
• 1953 (about) - The Campbell Park wreck lies in 12 feet of water. Robert Alexander Campbell will write August 2, 1985: "It surprises me that the old wreck still shows. This might indicate the bottom of the lake doesn't change too much. However, back in early 50s it was 12 feet deep over the wreck. I used to rent a row boat (with outboard motor) and keep it on the beach. With the little girls [born in 1942 & 1944] we would boat out over the wreck and fish. That summer there were always perch there and we had great fun pulling them in and having them for breakfast."  See entry for 1985 (Summer).

 
• 1954-1956 - Three cottages change ownership: The Wakeley/McCormack cottage is sold to the Kuizenga family in 1954, the Fawley cottage is sold to the Clark family in 1955, and the E.S. Ames cottage is sold to the Sloan family in 1956. (The Coleman/Morrison cottage will be sold to the Irwin/Purnell family in 1958, and the Willett/Wright cottage will be sold to the Kunz family in 1983.)

 
• 1956 (June 30) - A spectacular seiche causes Lake Michigan to receed and then rush back onshore from Grand Traverse Bay in the north to Pentwater in the south, but no serious damage is reported.

 
• 1956-57 - Charles Clayton Morrison presses PHA officers (President Robert Alexander Campbell and Secretary Van Meter Ames) to pay him for the share of Campbell Park which he relinquished in 1909 (despite using for many years his power of attorney from brother Hugh T. Morrison to participate in PHA meetings instead of exercising his own rights as a stockholder). They search records in Chicago and Cincinnati and conclude that his claim is invalid.

 
• 1957 (June) - Great Lakes Shoreline Survey is begun. The survey report "Remaining Shoreline" will cause the National Park Service to expand into the Great Lakes region. At the time of its release there are only three national park units in the region (Isle Royale National Park, Grand Portage National Monument, and Perry's Victory National Monument). Afterwards, Sleaping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and five other units will be will be established.

 
• 1957 (July 5) - George B. Fawley [born 1868] comes "to Chicago from Michigan City...and had lunch with Bob Campbell... Afterwards the two went down and visited with [Edward Scribner Ames] [born 1870] and [his daughter] Polly for an hour... What a treat to see these men greet one another and converse. They are still building, still religious, still educating and still loyal to family and friends." (from RAC's 1907-1957 history, page 19)

 
• 1957 (July 24) - "Pentwater Heights Association incorporation is extended.

 
• 1957 (July 24) - "Campbell Park, July 15, 1907-1957", a "folio" about Campbell Park history, is compiled and distributed by Robert Alexander CAMPBELL [1904-1986] to commemorate Campbell Park's semi-cenntenial (23 pages). He prepared 100 copies at a total cost of $146.25.

 
• 1957 (August 15) - "The Pentwater News" summarizes the report by Robert Alexander Campbell. The same issue headlines "Carrie E. Mears Passes at Pentwater." Miss Mears [1880-1957] will be buried in Chicago.

 
• 1957 (August 23) - "The Ludington Daily News" runs a story about Campbell Park by local historian Leonore P. Williams based on the report by Robert Alexander Campbell. She repeats his count that Campbell Park's present families number 134 individuals. Ms. Williams will later write a biography of Charles Mears.

 
• 1958 (March 22) - Legal help is sought by Pentwater Heights Association president Robert Alexander CAMPBELL to "clarify our present corporate status." Campbell writes: "The original group included Dr. E.S. Ames, who will be 88, April 21, 1958, and Mr. George Fawley, who was 89 last September 17, 1957. Neither owns a cottage or stock now. Van Meter Ames owns a cottage and stock. Mrs. Virginia Fawley Reichelt now owns only stock."

 
• 1958 (June 3) - Robert Alexander Campbell [1904-1986] resigns as president of the Pentwater Heights Association (PHA). He had been president 9 years (since 1949). Within a month, he will sell his 1/4 interest in the Campbell Cottage to his two remaining sisters and sister-in-law. Their descendants still share the cottage. (A fifth sibling, Rosabelle Campbell McCartney, sold out in 1948.) Bob will be suceeded as PHA president by Robert Walker Clark [b.1894] who will serve 21 years (until 1978).

 
• 1958 (June 29) - Edward Scribner AMES dies in Chicago. His ashes will be scattered with Mable's behind their cottage in Campbell Park.

 
• 1959 - "Beyond Theology: The Autobiography of Edward Scribner Ames" [1870-1958] is edited by Van Meter Ames [1898-1985] and published posthumously by the University of Chicago Press (233 pages). The next to last chapter (pages 203-213) is about Pentwater.

 
• 1959 -Saint Lawrence Seaway is completed, permitting larger ocean-going ships to enter the Great Lakes. The time to sail 1,251 miles from Montreal (past Campbell Park) to Chicago is 105 hours (plus an average of 17 hours to transit the locks enroute).

 
• 1960 - "The Road" is built up the dunes behind nine of Campbell Park's ten cottages, thus ending years of controversy  Never officially named by Campbell Park itselt, "the road" now appears on internet maps as "Campbell Park Road."

 
• 1960 - "The Fashion and Future of History" by Bernadotte Everly Schmitt [1886-1969] is published by the Press of Western Reserve University (205 pages). Husband of Damaris Kathryn (Babs) Ames [1901-1985] since 1939, Schmitt was a professor at the University of Chicago and historian of the Department of State in Washington, DC. He won the 1931 Pulitzer Prize in history for "The Coming of the War 1914."

 
• 1961 - "Japan and Zen" is written by Betty and Van Meter Ames and published by the University of Cincinnati (41 pages). The little book contains two essays: "Impressions of a Fulbright Wife in Japan" (pp. 1-27) by Betty and "Zen" (pp. 29-41) by Van Meter.

 
• 1962 - William Hepworth and his wife celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. They have 14 children, 61 grandchildren, and 5 great grandchildren. For many years, Mr. Hepworth drove a horse-drawn wagon up the beach to collect garbage from Campbell Park and other cottages.

 
• 1963 (February 11-13) - Winter visit to Campbell Park (and Kings Canyon) by Georgia May Campbell Lollis (age 61) and Ted Lollis (age 25). Lake Michigan is frozen as far as can be seen. Georgia May writes a lengthy description of the visit entitled "The fable of the tortoise and the hare."

 
• 1963 (late) - In Kigali, Rwanda (scene of the 1994 genocide), American Vice Consul Ted Lollis renews the passport of the American wife of German embassy officer Michael Kopp and discovers that she is Miriam McCormack, daughter of cottage owner John McCormack from Chicago. Ted and Miriam played together many summers in the 1940's, along with Sanford and Christine Ames, Joan Auer, and other children in Campbell Park.

 
• 1964 (June) - Level of Lake Michigan reaches an all-time low (at least since records were first kept in 1860).

 
• 1965 - "Pentwater 1853-1942" by Florence R. Schrumpf is published by the Hart Journal Press (95 pages).

 
• 1966 (March 2) - Charles Clayton MORRISON [1874-1966] dies in Chicago at age 91. His funeral will take place at the Univesity Church of the Disciples of Christ near the University of Chicago.

 
• 1966 - Herbert Lockwood WILLETT III discovers "The Corridor of Years," the manuscript of an unpublished autobiography of his grandfather Herbert Lockwood WILLETT, and sends a copy to the Christian Century. Page 115 of the manuscript describes the creation of Campbell Park in 1907.

 
• 1967 (August 6-13) - Village of Pentwater celebrates its centennial. Realtor Harold B. Shaw is chairman of the Centennial Committee. Shaw is well known to Campbell Park residents. As president of the Pentwater Rotary Club, he admitted William Epworth to membership as "sanitary engineer."

 
• 1967 - The alewife contaminates Pentwater beaches and comprises an estimated 85 percent of the entire Lake Michigan fishery. Chub, lake herring, yellow perch, and emerald shiner populations crash. Fish managers introduce the coho salmon in 1966 and the chinook salmon in 1967 to control the alewife.

 
• 1969 - Construction of the 842-acre Ludington Pumped Storage Reservoir is begun by Consumers Energy and Detroit Edison. Six turbines for the "project" will be shipped directly from Japan to Ludington, then hauled on a special road the last few miles. The "project" will be completed in 1973 at a cost of $379 million, forever altering the view from Campbell Park.

 
• 1970 - "Prayers and Meditations of Edward Scribner Ames" [1870-1958] is edited by Van Meter Ames [1898-1985] and published by the Disciples Divinity House at the University of Chicago (144 pages).

 
• 1971 - Historical Marker is erected in Ludington commemorating the "Armistice Day Storm" of November 11, 1940. A similar marker will be erected in Pentwater in 1986 commemorating the "Veterans' Day Storm".

 
• 1975 (about) - "Mom's Book [of Poetry]" (38 pages) is published by Janet Neilson [d.1998] in Saint Louis, Missouri. It contains at least three poems inspired by Campbell Park: Climbing to Tank Hill, Lake Michigan Sunset, and Purple Martins.

 
• 1976 - White Pine Village museum opens as a Bicentennial project near Ludington.

 
• 1978 - "To Find the Simple Things", a book of poetry, is written and published by Van Meter Ames [1898-1985] in Cincinnati, Ohio (190 pages). Chapter 1 (pages 9-33) is devoted to poems about Pentwater. The foreword is written by Macklin Thomas, Van's second cousin and owner of Wayside Cottage (located just North of Campbell Park). Van's previous works include "Aesthetics of the Novel."

 
• 1979 (August) - Map of Campbell Park is drawn by Edward (Ted) LOLLIS from field notes he made in August 1975.

 
• 1981 - "Of Time and Pentwater - North Beach" - A history of the North Beach Association (immediately North of Campbell Park) by Sydney V. JAMES, Edward Topping JAMES, and others is published by the North Beach Association of Pentwater, Inc. (See entry for April 17, 2001.)

 
• 1982 (Summer) - Village of Pentwater sends questionnaire to all property owners asking how Pentwater might be improved. Campbell Park will adopt a resolution on 04 July 1983 commending various village bodies "for the constructive information they have developed..."

 
• 1984 (January 18) - Christian Century celebrates its centennial, i.e. the centennial of the founding of its predecessor publication -- the Christian Oracle -- in Iowa in 1884. In the January 18 issue of the Century, managing editor Linda-Marie Delloff quotes Charles Clayton Morrison as giving George Alexander Campbell credit for suggesting the new name -- the Christian Century -- in Chicago in 1899.

 
• 1985 (Summer) - The Campbell Park wreck lies in only four feet of water. See entry for 1953 (about).

 
• 1985 (November 5) - Van Meter Ames [1898-1985] dies in Cincinnati, Ohio. There will be discussion about a suitable memorial, and a little book of Van's writings about Pentwater will be published in 1996. A memorial bench will also be constructed on the board walk, but other names are proposed, and no plaque is ever afixed to the memorial bench.

 
• 1986 - Historical Markers are erected in Pentwater commemorating the "Veterans' Day Storm" of November 11, 1940 and the "Graveyard of Ships". A similar marker was erected in Ludington in 1971 commemorating the "Armistice Day Storm".

 
• 1986 (September) - Torential rains ("worst flooding in history of Michigan") create havoc all along Pentwater River: Hart Lake is drained, the southbound bridge of the US-31 freeway collapses, and Long Bridge across Pentwater Lake is inundated.

 
• 1989 (July 5) - Sand Dune Statutes (P.A. 146 & 147) are signed into law by Michigan Governor James J. Blanchard. The laws generally prohibit any structure on a slope steeper than 18% and any use at all on a slope steeper than 25%.

 
• 1993 (August) - "Campbell Park - Minutes of the Cottage Owners Association and the Pentwater Heights Association (along with other material included in the original notebooks) 1907-1992" is photocopied and distributed by Ann Clark Calkins.

 
• 1996 (Spring) - "They Built on Sand," by Van Meter Ames [1898-1985] is edited by Sanford Ames and published by Campbell Park Cottage Owners in Van Meter's memory. The little book contains an an essay about Pentwater (pp. 1-17) and sixteen Pentwater poems (pp. 31-46).

 
• 1994 - Epworth Heights celebrates its centennial.

 
• 1998 - Bortell's Fish Market celebrates its centennial.

 
• 1999 (July) - "Like the core of the family that held everything together." - Two of the oldest and most revered members of the Campbell family die eight days apart: Cleta Hope CAMPBELL Whitehead [born in Yakima, Washington, in 1893] and Mary Evalyn CAMPBELL Auer Wulff [born in Hannibal, Missouri, in 1912].

 
• 1999 (August) - "Garrison Park Association History" by Harry Q. Wasson and others is published by the Garrison Park Association. See 1903 entry for the early history of Garrison Park..

 
• 2000 (January 26) - Christian Century celebrates "a century of the Century" -- and decides to retain its name for a second hundred years ("Take Two"). In the January 26 issue of the Century, historian Mark Toulouse refers to Pentwaterites Herbert Lockwood Willett, Edward Scribner Ames, and Charles Clayton Morrison.

 
• 2001 (April 17) - Death of Edward Topping JAMES in Norwood, Massachusetts. Born in 1917 in Chicago, James was a lifelong summer resident of Pentwater's North Beach, Harvard roommate of Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., and co-editor with his wife Janet WILSON of "Notable American Women, 1607-1950."  His grandfather Wendell TOPPING purchased Lake Michigan frontage immediately North of Campbell Park and started what would become the North Beach Association (NBA).  (See entries for Spring 1941 and 1981.)

 
• 2001 (August) - Cane Ridge Ridge Meeting House in Paris, Kentucky, celebrates the bicentennial of the Great Revival led by Barton Warren Stone.  (See entry for 1801.)

 
• 2002 (May) - "The Town that Time Forgot: Tiny Pentwater, Michigan, hasn't changed too much in decades [and] that's a good thing."  This is the subject of a travel article by Rebecca Poynor Burns in the Indianapolis Monthly magazine.

 
• 2002 (October 4) - Betty Breneman Ames [1907-2002] dies in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Betty is 95 years old (same age as Campbell Park) and the last of "the second generation" (i.e. Campbell Park founders' children and their spouses).

 
• 2003 - "Ghosts of the Oceana Coast: Pentwater Shipwrecks" is published by Brendon Baillod. The author is co-founder and director of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Research Foundation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The book mentions the Campbell Park wreck but does not conclusively identify it. See entries for 1878 (September 20), 1953 (about), and 1985 (Summer).

 
• 2004 - Garrison Park celebrates its centennial on Pentwater's South Beach.

 
• 2006 (June 25-30) - George Campbell (Camp) Murphy (b.1971) and his girlfriend Anna photograph Campbell Cottage (interior and exterior), Campbell Park, Pentwater, and vicinity. Camp posts the photos to his photoblog "iCamp." To see the photos, go to "Pentwater - June 2006" and "Campbell Cottage Album". Camp was named for George Alexender Campbell II who was killed at West Point, NY, on September 11, 1948 (qv).

 
• 2007 (July 15) - Campbell Park celebrates its centennial on Pentwater's North Beach. A thick history ("Campbell Park 1907-2007: The First 100 Years") is compiled and distributed in a 3-ring binder by "the historical committee" (Sibyl Sloan McBride, Pat Neilson, Anne Shannon, and Julie Sloan Van Hamm). Some of this website is reproduced in Chapter 1 (History). Other sources of Chapter 1 are "Pentwater 1853-1942" by Florence R. Schrumpf, "Campbell Park 1907-1957" by Robert Alexander Campbell, "A Review of Twenty Years 1957-1977," and Campbell Park minutes 1977-present. The new book also includes a five-page essay I wrote in March 2007 about my mother's lifelong association with Pentwater and Campbell Park. Click here to see the essay (in Word format).

 
• 2009 (August 3) - Bicentennial of Thomas Campbell's "Declaration and Address" (qv) is celebrated with a mass communion service at the close of the World Convention of Christian Churches in Nashville, Tennessee. The Bicentennial Task Force issues a new call for unity among all congregations in the Stone-Campbell movement -- the Churches of Christ, Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).