![]() ![]() The club's membership was significantly reduced over the next few years, eventually leading to foreclosure of the building in September 2011.ĭonelle (Boucher) Johnson’s father, Tom Boucher, was a Harbour Towne Marina slip owner and one of the early members of the Harbour Towne Yacht Club. ![]() The timing of expansion didn’t align well with the downturn in the economy and low water levels. The last major upgrade was in 2008, with the addition of an elevator and commercial kitchen to further support the reception hall and the yacht club. Over the years they continued to improve the building with the addition of a bar in the lower level, and an outdoor pool and hot tub. This group built out the existing shell of the building to be a clubhouse on the lower level and a reception hall called the Harbour View Room on the main level. Eventually, a motivated group of slip owners from the Harbour Towne Marina got together to form the Harbour Towne Yacht Club, with plans to use the building for their clubhouse. For a short while, a small convenience store was located on the main level. The Pidge Inn building was built around 1990, with the original intention of being a restaurant and a bar on the two levels. In the 1980s, the mined land was sold to developers and they built the Harbour Towne Condominiums and Harbour Towne Marina. Between the 1930s and 1960s, sand was mined from the dune to support industrial casting sand needs, mainly World War II, and changed the skyline forever. The Pigeon Hill dune met the same fate as the passenger pigeons it was named for. The Lakeshore Museum Center in Muskegon has a mounted passenger pigeon on display and a painting, both by Lewis Cross, a Spring Lake resident, who saw the Passenger Pigeons in the wild. She died, and it is the only species where we know exactly the date and time it went extinct. The last known captive passenger pigeon was Martha, at the Cincinnati Zoo. Due to the loss of habitat and pressure on their nesting areas, there was a rapid decline in population between 18, and the last passenger pigeon was spotted in the wild in 1901. At the same time, human populations were expanding and rapid deforestation was taking place. Due to improved communication and transportation options, the locations of the large flocks were shared and hunters would descend on the nesting areas and shoot the pigeons for a cheap food source. Articles from the time discuss the sky turning dark for days as the passenger pigeons migrated to new nesting areas. ![]() It is estimated that there were up to 5 billion passenger pigeons in the 1800s, the most numerous bird in the country. This dune was named for the passenger pigeons who nested on the dune in the 1800s. References suggest the dune was over 200 feet high and spread over 40 acres. The Pidge Inn sits on the site of a former sand dune known as Pigeon Hill. ![]()
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