Point Betsie and the south end of Sleeping Bear

Just north of Frankfort, the Lake Michigan shore turns wild and beautiful. The star is the Point Betsie Lighthouse — the oldest building in Benzie County, first lit in 1858, marking the southern entrance to the busy Manitou Passage. It was one of the last lighthouses on the Great Lakes to keep a live-in keeper, automated only in 1983, and today, owned by the county and lovingly restored, it’s one of the most photographed lighthouses in the state.

North of the point, Benzie holds the southern end of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. It’s gentler country than the towering dunes up in Leelanau — long sandy beaches, low dunes, and the broad sweep of Platte Bay, where the spring-fed Platte River winds out to the lake. The lower Platte is one of the most popular tubing and paddling rivers in northern Michigan, and the river is famous among anglers as the place where the Great Lakes salmon fishery began. Quiet spots like Esch Road Beach and Platte River Point, and the flat Platte Plains and Old Indian trails, round out this corner of the park.

For buyers, this end of the county is prized for its wild Lake Michigan shoreline and its inland lakes, especially Platte Lake. Land right inside the National Lakeshore is federally protected and not for sale, which makes the private property near the park scarce and sought-after. Homes out here are on wells and septic (see the well-and-septic note).