The Summer Resort that Started on a Shoe String (Part 4)

Written by Mrs. Fred (Bertha) Coburn

Don had been working in the barber shop since 1934 when he went in to learn the barber trade. Fred was now able to take a little more time at the lake by 1940. In 1944 Don was drafted into the war and was gone two years. During that time, we coudn't go to the lake as Fred worked alone in the shop, so our daughter, Geraldine, took over the cottage and boat business. She had two boys, 3 years and 8 months. When Don had to leave to enter the war, his little girl, Judy, was 3 years old. I offered to take care of Judy so June, his wife, could work. Four years before, when all of our children were married, Fred remodeled the upstairs, which had been three bedrooms, into a furnished apartment. It had a bathroom, kitchen and combination living room and bedroom. So, June took the apartment, and I took care of Judy.

It was amazing how Fred could do all that carpenter work at the cottage and at home, for his trade was being a barber since he was 18 years old. He kept on learning more about construction work as he worked at it. In 1947 Fred saw an ad in the Fremont paper about some farm buildings the county wanted torn down, so they could get to a gravel pit. The lowest bidder for the job could have all the lumber just for tearing them down and removing all the refuse from the place. There was a two-story house, a large frame barn and a 14 x 20 chicken house. Fred put in a bid for $200.00 and got the job. In the spring of 1948, Fred got a man to help him, Lloyd Dunlap; he had a cottage there on the outlet, and he wanted another lot and some lumber to build an addition on his cottage. He agreed to work it out and so helped to tear down the buildings. The lumber was hauled over to our place on Fred's trailer, and Lloyd would spend his evenings pulling out nails.

As Don was back in the shop by then, Fred could take three days off fromt he barber shop and work at the lake. In the summer of 1950, Fred decided to use the lumber to build a two-stall garage with an apartment over it. As the electric was in and the cottages didn't need ice anymore, Fred tore the ice house down and started his new project. This was the biggest construction job he had undertaken. He first built the forms for the cement wall 24 x 28, then mixed the cement himself to make the wall. When that was done, he had gravel hauled in to fill up and get ready for a cement floor for the two-stall garage. Before that he laid piping in the gravel for water to supply the garage and the upstairs apartment (bathroom and kitchen). He had learned how to do his own plumbing as well as carpenter work. The cement floor was put in by a "Redi-Mix" construction man. Any work that could be handled alone, Fred did himself, but he had to have help putting up the rafters and roof boards. Our son, Bud, helped with that. The roofing when chingled was a two-way job, Fred stayed on the roof, and I carried the pieces up the ladder to him. I also helped nailing on the sheeting. We managed to get all the roofing and sheeting on and the window openings covered with tarpaper by November 7, 1950, before the first snow storm. Then we closed up for the winter and came back to our home and barber shop until the next spring when a new job was waiting. It took him all that summer to put on slate shingles on the outside and lay the floor in the upstairs apartment, and it took three years of work to finish the whole job. He built his own kitchen cupboards and installed the bathroom, finished with knotty pin througout and made nice big closets off the bedrooms. Fred's brother, Sam, installed the electric wiring as he was a licensed electrician. Sam also helped in Fred's next project, which was the Trailer Park. The apartment was ready to ren by '54. It took three years to build as he was still working in the barber shope three days a week.

As soon as the apartment was finished, Fred started in on the Trailer Park, which originally was the picnic grounds when we first started on the point. Fred advertised free camp grounds if you rent a boat at 50 cents a day. People came up with their tents and camped a week or more. The fishing was real good. Fred furnished picnic tables and built a stove in the center of the grounds. He gathered a lot of small stones to make the chimney, then went to a Fremont tin shop and ordered four sheet iron stoves to fit up to the chimney. It was set on a cement floor 12 x 34 with a picnic table on each end. At the time, anyone could find pine knots or wood lying around to build a fire, and they could fry their fish and make coffee. The stove was there about 20 years, Fred tore it down when he started the Trailer Park. It was the first licensed trailer park in Newaygo Coungty. He was given a special set of rules on how to build it, and he had to follow them to the letter. first he had a well driven, then his brother, Sam, helped him lay the pipes to supply water to the trailer sites. Therer were 12 in all, plus the utility building which had ladies and mens toilets. The septic tank was 8 x 12 feet deep. Our two grandsons, Dan and Jim Weller, dug the hole for their Grandpa, and we were very proud of them. Sam helped build the utility building and also put in the electric service to all the trailer sites. In the process of building the utility building, Fred was using an electric saw he had borrowed from a neighbor. He had shut the saw off and thought it had stopped running, but when he picked it up his finger hit it and was cut off. Sam took him to the hospital and had it taken care of. It was his right hand, but it didn't stop him from working in the barber shop, or in finishing the work on the trailer park. Our son, Don, surveyed and designed the plat for the trailer park, and it was recorded in the White Cloud city hall. The park was completed and ready to rent the sites the summer of 1955. We had no trouble renting all of them. One man stayed the whole time from 1955 to 1970, when we sold the trailer park to Harold Weller.

When are cottage was all finished in 1941, I opened up a store on the front porch. Fred made a sliding window at the end of the porch so the children could be served fromt he outside and not have to come into my cottage. I sold soft drinks, milk, candy and cigarettes, etc. I had the store for 30 years until Fred died in 1971 of cancer. By then I was 75 years old and decided to give up the store. I still rent boats and my apartment over the garage.