Point Lookout History
Point Lookout Improvement Company
A Brief History of Point Lookout
By Val Korth
April 18, 2008
Point Lookout is a small part of six million acres that the Chippewa Indians ceded in 1819 to the Territory of Michigan.
By 1831, Arenac County was surveyed and mapped as part of Saginaw and Bay Counties and was real estate ready to
be bought. Michigan in 1837 became the 26th state of the Union and about that same year Dr. Daniel H. Fitzhugh
bought a large strip of land along Saginaw Bay close to the tip of what today we call Point Lookout. At this time more
than 2500 Chippewa Indians still lived along the shores of Saginaw Bay. Hides, lumber and fishing brought
entrepreneurs, but no real settlers.
In 1872, Ann Dana Fitzhugh, Daughter of Dr. Fitzhugh, and her husband, Hamilton Wright, a one-time mayor of Bay
City, bought land next to that of Dr. Fitzhugh and put up the first two cottages of Point Lookout.
Ten years later a firm called Tasker & McDonald built a hotel, Lookout House, close to the tip of the Point. In 1883
Arenac County was organized as a separate county apart from Bay County. By 1885, it was bought reasonably by
Hamilton Wright because the project had transportation problems. Wright solved the problems by buying one or two
Lake Steamers that he docked in Bay City. The hotel and its annex and cottages enjoyed success with day trippers
plus over nighters until it burned down in 1915.
Starting before 1900, pioneers of Point Lookout had built enough cottages for summer vacations to bring Mennonite
farmers in their wagons to sell them vegetables and baked goods. The roads were terrible but at least there was a
train service between Omer and Au Gres. Descendants of several of these hardy pioneers still summer at Point
Lookout today.
Eventually, the road got better, the Community Hall was built (1917), and the Point Lookout Improvement Company
bylaws were written. The first electricity came in 1931---and in 1932 the first Point Lookout Beauty contest occurred!
This is often remembered as the Tea Room Era. Two or three women had decided to offer refreshments to their
summer neighbors as a way to earn extra income during the 1930’s Depression. Actually, these were calm an peaceful
days. There was only one telephone even though the wives and children stayed all summer while the men went back
and forth to their work locations.
Today there are a lot more cottages, a lot better roads, faster cars, faster boats, and more hurried lives, but a lot of
the neighborliness and warm feeling for Point Lookout remain. It has met the challenge of today’s hectic world and
then some.
By Val Korth
April 18, 2008
Point Lookout is a small part of six million acres that the Chippewa Indians ceded in 1819 to the Territory of Michigan.
By 1831, Arenac County was surveyed and mapped as part of Saginaw and Bay Counties and was real estate ready to
be bought. Michigan in 1837 became the 26th state of the Union and about that same year Dr. Daniel H. Fitzhugh
bought a large strip of land along Saginaw Bay close to the tip of what today we call Point Lookout. At this time more
than 2500 Chippewa Indians still lived along the shores of Saginaw Bay. Hides, lumber and fishing brought
entrepreneurs, but no real settlers.
In 1872, Ann Dana Fitzhugh, Daughter of Dr. Fitzhugh, and her husband, Hamilton Wright, a one-time mayor of Bay
City, bought land next to that of Dr. Fitzhugh and put up the first two cottages of Point Lookout.
Ten years later a firm called Tasker & McDonald built a hotel, Lookout House, close to the tip of the Point. In 1883
Arenac County was organized as a separate county apart from Bay County. By 1885, it was bought reasonably by
Hamilton Wright because the project had transportation problems. Wright solved the problems by buying one or two
Lake Steamers that he docked in Bay City. The hotel and its annex and cottages enjoyed success with day trippers
plus over nighters until it burned down in 1915.
Starting before 1900, pioneers of Point Lookout had built enough cottages for summer vacations to bring Mennonite
farmers in their wagons to sell them vegetables and baked goods. The roads were terrible but at least there was a
train service between Omer and Au Gres. Descendants of several of these hardy pioneers still summer at Point
Lookout today.
Eventually, the road got better, the Community Hall was built (1917), and the Point Lookout Improvement Company
bylaws were written. The first electricity came in 1931---and in 1932 the first Point Lookout Beauty contest occurred!
This is often remembered as the Tea Room Era. Two or three women had decided to offer refreshments to their
summer neighbors as a way to earn extra income during the 1930’s Depression. Actually, these were calm an peaceful
days. There was only one telephone even though the wives and children stayed all summer while the men went back
and forth to their work locations.
Today there are a lot more cottages, a lot better roads, faster cars, faster boats, and more hurried lives, but a lot of
the neighborliness and warm feeling for Point Lookout remain. It has met the challenge of today’s hectic world and
then some.
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