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From its inception, Macatawa Park was very aggressively promoted by the Holland residents who controlled it. Captain Harrington's steam boat "Macatawa" had an exclusive agreement to transport passengers from his dock on 5th street in Holland to the Macatawa resort on the south side of the channel, and he refused to ferry passengers over to Ottawa Beach. Macatawa Park became the lakeshore destination of choice for several years.

Camping in tents , fishing, picnicing, exploring the sand dunes and splashing around in the lakes continued to draw bigger and bigger crowds. This photo from the Macatawa side shows a row of tents on a wooden walkway.

The Hotel Ottawa featured meals and an occasional band concert, balroom dance or a baseball game. This photo from the early 1920's shows a band concert in progress. A separate building housed a bowling alley, billiard tables and the dining hall. At this time, there was no telephone, electricity or sewage treatment at Ottawa beach. Several windmills provided a barely adequate supply of pure cold water for both the hotel and the cottages. Current Ottawa beach cottage owner Fred Vaas remembers a large wooden water reservoir on the side of Mount Pisgah, the tall sand dune located in the neighborhood. The water distribution system- the water pipes, not the reservoir - outlived the hotel and remained in use by the cottagers until Holland city water was installed

The Chicago and West Michigan Raliway had the Hotel Ottawa but no rail line to the beach, so they arranged to have the steamer Queen of the Lakes under master FL Johnson come down to Lake Macatawa from Elk Rapids. Thus two groups each with its own resort area and hotel competed for visitors wanting to get out to the lakeshore. The Chicago and West Michigan railway extension from Holland out to the Hotel Ottawa was completed in 1890, a year which also saw the completion of 28 cottages at Ottawa Beach. Macatawa Park had to wait another eight years until July of 1898 for completion of the electric interurban line which connected Grand