Dune buggies and asparagus: two sides of Oceana County

Oceana County has two identities that sound as if they should belong in different places. At Silver Lake State Park, the DNR counts 2,000 acres of sand dunes between Silver Lake and Lake Michigan. Motorized riding is limited to a 450-acre ORV area. On its 2026 visitor-use study page, the DNR calls that the only place east of the Mississippi River where visitors can drive motorized vehicles directly on sand dunes. Roughly two-thirds of the park’s dunes are for pedestrians, and Little Sable Point Lighthouse stands at the south end.

Then there is asparagus. Oceana County’s own website calls the county the “Asparagus Capital of the World.” Read that as a civic nickname, not as a measured global ranking. MSU Extension says asparagus is Oceana’s largest vegetable commodity. A separate 2025 MSU report, using 2023 production data, ranked Michigan first among states for asparagus; that statewide rank does not prove that Oceana is the world’s largest producing county.

Hart celebrates the crop with the National Asparagus Festival on the second weekend in June. The organizer calls it the country’s longest-running asparagus festival and currently lists a parade, an asparagus queen, food events, a farm tour, and a road race. Dates and events can change, so check the festival’s current schedule before you build a trip around it. Put together, the dunes and the fields tell a more useful story than a pair of unqualified crowns: recreation and agriculture both shape daily life in Oceana County.