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The 1886 plat map of the West Michigan Park Plat.
At 4:00PM on September 21, 1886, Ottawa County Register of Deeds William Kelly received this map of the West Michigan Park Plat from J.K.V. Agnew, president and William Smith, secretary of the West Michigan Park Association. Mr. Kelly officially recorded the plat in the county records.
In this colorized version of surveyor Albert V. Peck’s map, Lake Michigan is at the far left (west) and Black Lake is at the bottom (south). The curved southwest boundary of the plat follows the center of the old channel which connected Black Lake with Lake Michigan. The land on the other side of this boundary was owned by the Chicago and West Michigan Railway and was used as the bathing beach for the Hotel Ottawa guests and the cottage owners. Following the destruction of the Hotel Ottawa by fire in late 1923, this land was donated to the State of Michigan and was developed as Holland State Park.
