From "Lumber Queen of the World" to a waterfront full of history

Muskegon’s whole story starts with white pine. In the second half of the 1800s, the sawmills lining Muskegon Lake cut so much timber that the city earned the nickname “Lumber Queen of the World.” When the big pine ran out, the lumber barons left their mark on the city — none more than Charles Hackley, who gave much of his fortune back to Muskegon, paying for a public library, a hospital, a park, and an art museum that still carry his name. You can tour his world at the Hackley & Hume Historic Site downtown, where two beautifully restored 1887 Queen Anne mansions show off the carved woodwork, stained glass, and painted ceilings that lumber money could buy.

That same lakefront later became home to two World War II warships, both open as museums. The USS Silversides is a Gato-class submarine — one of the most successful American subs of the war, with a dozen battle stars to her name — and you can climb down inside her tight quarters on Muskegon Lake. A short way along the water sits the USS LST-393, a tank landing ship that carried troops and tanks ashore on D-Day; she’s one of only two of her kind left from the more than a thousand built. Together they make Muskegon’s old working harbor one of the best spots in the state for naval history.

If you’d like to visit: the Hackley & Hume Historic Site is at 484 W. Webster Avenue (lakeshoremuseum.org); the USS Silversides Submarine Museum is at 1346 Bluff Street (silversidesmuseum.org); and the USS LST-393 Veterans Museum is at 560 Mart Street on the downtown waterfront (lst393.org).