Bewabic State Park and the lakes the CCC loved

A few miles west of Crystal Falls, Bewabic State Park spreads along the shore of Fortune Lake. That’s the first in the Fortune Lakes Chain, a string of clear, spring-fed glacial lakes. Quiet channels link them, so you can paddle from one to the next. It’s one of those older Upper Peninsula parks with a particular kind of charm: towering pines, a sandy family beach, and rustic log-and-stone buildings that feel like they grew out of the woods. There’s good reason for that feeling. Much of the park was hand-built in the 1930s.

The park began in 1923 as a private resort on a former farmstead. But its real character came from the Depression-era work crews. Civil Works Administration men and then the Civilian Conservation Corps spent the mid-1930s shaping Bewabic into what you see today. They built a log bathhouse, stone fireplaces and fountains, picnic shelters, a footbridge out to a little island in the lake, even a bandstand. The craftsmanship was good enough that the whole park was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. Michigan bought it for the state park system in the 1960s.

Today Bewabic has a big modern campground tucked into shady, private wooded sites. There are also a handful of walk-in rustic spots, a boat launch and rentals on Fortune Lake, and a couple of miles of woodland trails. And then a genuine oddity: the only tennis court in any Michigan state park. It’s a CCC-era leftover that has somehow never been duplicated anywhere else in the system. Fishing is good for perch, bluegill, bass, and walleye. A Recreation Passport gets you in. Details at michigan.gov/dnr.