Bewabic State Park

Bewabic State Park, a 315-acre recreation area on Fortune Lake near Crystal Falls, began in 1923 when Herbert F. Larson acquired lakeside farmland for public use. Initially a modest park with a beach, picnic grounds, parking, and camping, it was reshaped during the New Deal as Civil Works Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps crews added an island footbridge and trail, picnic shelter, tennis courts, rustic buildings, stonework, and planned landscaping. Michigan acquired the park in 1966 and expanded it the next year. Despite later updates, it remains notable for its unusually intact New Deal-era design and architecture, recognized on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.

Michigan · United States