Hague Park: Summer Amusement Hot Spot

In the 1890s, Vandercook Lake property owner Edrick Hague developed this spot as a picnic area. Entrepreneurs later leased the acreage from Hague with the intent of turning it into an amusement park, then bought it outright in 1907 and expanded it with a vaudeville theater, a high slide into the water, a fish pond, a merry-go-round, concession stands, and steamboat rides around the lake. Visitors first arrived by horse-drawn trolleys, and later electricity-powered street cars brought steady crowds. The park drew about 30,000 people over the Fourth of July weekend in 1912. Its top attraction was Jack Rabbit, a roller coaster that carried passengers straight up about 50 feet before plunging downward for five cents a ride. A fire in 1923 and the Great Depression in 1929 contributed to the park's closure. In 1938, the area became a Jackson County Park. Today it is known as Townsend Beaman County Park, formerly Vandercook Lake Park, a 21-acre public attraction offering swimming, fishing, boating, and picnic areas, while only a single cement pad near Fourth Street remains from the Jack Rabbit roller coaster.

Vandercook Lake, Michigan · United States