Not a tourist town - no crowded beaches or sidewalks, no traffic jams, hardly any T-shirt shops. Muskegon is a working town with 26 miles of award-winning clean beaches, a lake every 15 minutes, a love for nature and preserving the dunes, stupendous historic architecture, abundant culture - art, symphony, live theater - and a great historic neighborhood - Bluffton.
Map and Area of Bluffton Harbor Cottages - Eagles Nest and Redbird - in Muskegon, Michigan
- Aerial map of Bluffton Harbor Cottages - Eagles Nest in back on dune and Redbird in front on street level.
- Muskegon Lake is to the right - 5 miles long by 2 miles wide (n-s). It is used for pleasure boats and 100-foot long container ships.
- Lake Michigan is at left. It is 80 miles wide (e-w) and 300 miles long (n-s).
- In the County of Muskegon, the sandy beach runs for 26 miles on either sides of the Muskegon Channel.
Bluffton Harbor Cottages - "The little cottages that could" - in the non-tourist town of Muskegon
Bluffton Harbor Cottages being classified as Muskegon vacation rentals is an anomaly. It's a vacation rental home business in the non-tourist town of Muskegon, Michigan.
Muskegon is a city blessed with 26 miles of award-winning clean beaches. The Lake Michigan beach is golden and resembles an ocean seaside, and in addition to the "Big Lake," you can't drive 15 minutes before running into various inland lakes. Yet Muskegon is a working town, not a "beach town" - there are no crowded beaches or sidewalks, no traffic jams, and hardly any T-shirt shops.
The City of Muskegon has historically been divided by natural selection into various ethnic neighborhoods. The Bluffton Neighborhood has a penchant for the arts and a love for nature, for preserving the dunes, and for protecting history. If you look closely at Thompson Street, one block south of Redbird and Eagles Nest, you will see the remains of the street car tracks which brought the citizens from the town to Pere Marquette Park beach, the same beach you will visit, but without the large pavillion that existed years ago. Thompson street probably needs some repairs, but the citizens so far have resisted destroying the rail remnants.
Pere Marquette Park beach. We have recently seen it written as Pier, as in container walls holding back water in the channel,. Let us set the record straight. Pere is French for "Father." The beach was named in memory of Pere Marquette, a Jesuit priest who ==.
The citizens are proud of the stupendous historic architecture, abundant culture - art, symphony, live theater - and the great historic but somewhat "worn on the hem" neighborhood of Bluffton. The edges have every right to be frayed, though, as the houses date from the early 1900s and some earlier.
Bluffton Neighborhood (Village of Bluffton in the early days) is where artists, musicians, nature preservationists, self-employed business owners, retirees, and working folk of all ages and stages of life love to live, just like the founders of Bluffton Village, the Actors' Colony of Chicago, did in the early 1900s.
It is because of the welcoming neighbors that Bluffton Harbor Cottages attracts guests who seem to have the same respect for the area as the locals do. When you visit, you become an honorary member of Bluffton, and you may find yourself chatting with neighbors if you are so inclined. One street over, the tiny church with the steeple rings its church bells, which becond you to join in. When you stroll one block east, you will dead end at the sandy "street beach" at the shoreline of Muskegon Lake. The sand is only as wide as the two-lane street, but has a bench to watch sailboat races and thousand-foot freighters sail by. If you bring your kayak, you may launch it there. Arrive early in the morning and watch the sun rise. At night, walk 3 blocks in the opposite direction and see the sun slowly set into Lake Michigan, turning the sky pink, purple, orange and other beautiful colors.
If you're looking for a place with authentic, interesting, friendly people, where you can live like a local, this is it. Bluffton - where folks want to move in, but hardly anyone moves out!
frayed around the edges
Muskegon is a city blessed with 26 miles of award-winning clean beaches. The Lake Michigan beach is golden and resembles an ocean seaside, and in addition to the "Big Lake," you can't drive 15 minutes before running into various inland lakes. Yet Muskegon is a working town, not a "beach town" - there are no crowded beaches or sidewalks, no traffic jams, and hardly any T-shirt shops.
The City of Muskegon has historically been divided by natural selection into various ethnic neighborhoods. The Bluffton Neighborhood has a penchant for the arts and a love for nature, for preserving the dunes, and for protecting history. If you look closely at Thompson Street, one block south of Redbird and Eagles Nest, you will see the remains of the street car tracks which brought the citizens from the town to Pere Marquette Park beach, the same beach you will visit, but without the large pavillion that existed years ago. Thompson street probably needs some repairs, but the citizens so far have resisted destroying the rail remnants.
Pere Marquette Park beach. We have recently seen it written as Pier, as in container walls holding back water in the channel,. Let us set the record straight. Pere is French for "Father." The beach was named in memory of Pere Marquette, a Jesuit priest who ==.
The citizens are proud of the stupendous historic architecture, abundant culture - art, symphony, live theater - and the great historic but somewhat "worn on the hem" neighborhood of Bluffton. The edges have every right to be frayed, though, as the houses date from the early 1900s and some earlier.
Bluffton Neighborhood (Village of Bluffton in the early days) is where artists, musicians, nature preservationists, self-employed business owners, retirees, and working folk of all ages and stages of life love to live, just like the founders of Bluffton Village, the Actors' Colony of Chicago, did in the early 1900s.
It is because of the welcoming neighbors that Bluffton Harbor Cottages attracts guests who seem to have the same respect for the area as the locals do. When you visit, you become an honorary member of Bluffton, and you may find yourself chatting with neighbors if you are so inclined. One street over, the tiny church with the steeple rings its church bells, which becond you to join in. When you stroll one block east, you will dead end at the sandy "street beach" at the shoreline of Muskegon Lake. The sand is only as wide as the two-lane street, but has a bench to watch sailboat races and thousand-foot freighters sail by. If you bring your kayak, you may launch it there. Arrive early in the morning and watch the sun rise. At night, walk 3 blocks in the opposite direction and see the sun slowly set into Lake Michigan, turning the sky pink, purple, orange and other beautiful colors.
If you're looking for a place with authentic, interesting, friendly people, where you can live like a local, this is it. Bluffton - where folks want to move in, but hardly anyone moves out!
frayed around the edges
Located in the desirable, historical Bluffton neighborhood, the people who love to live here are artists, musicians, nature preservationists, self-employeed business owners, retirees, and working folk of all ages. They honor the history of the the Actors' Colony of Chicago, who founded the 2-block by 6-block area of Bluffton in the early 1900s.
Some of the neighboring houses are "frayed," and they should be -- many are 100+ years old with exciting stories of the early days waiting to be told -- stories like the trained elephant and zebra ambling down the street on the way to bathe at Lake Michigan and famous actor and director, Buster Keaton, of "Damfino" fame, whose sister once lived in Redbird.
Some of the neighboring houses are "frayed," and they should be -- many are 100+ years old with exciting stories of the early days waiting to be told -- stories like the trained elephant and zebra ambling down the street on the way to bathe at Lake Michigan and famous actor and director, Buster Keaton, of "Damfino" fame, whose sister once lived in Redbird.