Gun Lake

Several legends are debated about in determining how Gun Lake was officially named. According to a majority of the locals in the area, there was a battle between the Ottawa and the Potawatomi. During this battle, the Native Americans involved fought with firearms, which they obtained in the fur trade with white men. Once the battle was over and the men declared peace, the chief of the winning tribe “ordered that the guns be thrown into the lake.” Thus, the name “Gun Lake,” was born.

was born.

The Tale of How

The first settlers to make their home in West Michigan were the Native Americans. The Gun Lake Tribe, lead by Chief Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish, originated from the Kalamazoo Valley, their village “at the head of the Kalamazoo River”. The Gun Lake Tribe, also known as the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish, were Potawatomi Indians, which are part of the Three Fires Confederacy.

Gun Lake in the mid 2000's

During this time period, many land cessions were being made and eventually the tribe relocated to the Gun Lake region, where they stayed for quite some time. In the early 1900s, the tribe tried to take the steps to become officially recognized by the state as a tribe. The Bureau of Indian Affairs declined their recognition, along with the rest of the Lower Peninsula tribes in Michigan, but later in the 1990s the Gun Lake Tribe filed once again for federal acknowledgment. On August 23, 1999 Chief Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish and his tribe were granted their wish and were finally considered an official Native American Tribe. The Gun Lake area still has a Native American presence to this day, with the Bradley Mission being the main place of interest for the tribe.

Chief Noonday was a tall, muscular chief who happened to be an excellent hiker, which is how the Chief Noonday Trail, a beautiful hiking trail around the lake, came to be named. Noonday was an Ottawa tribe member, and chief of a village that resided on the upper Grand River.

Battle Of Gun Lake

He was involved in some

of Michigan’s early historical

battles,

such as the Battle of Fallen

Timbers, and possibly

fought in the Revolution,

though this is questionable.

One fight he was officially documented in was the Battle of the Thames, which took place at the same time as the War of 1812. During this battle Chief Noonday allied with Chief Tecumseh, a noteworthy Shawnee chief. Chief Tecumseh was slain while fighting with a which soldier, and Noonday, along with another Gun Lake area chief, carried his body out of the battlefield. Noonday had the honor of inheriting Tecumseh’s hat and tomahawk.

Later on in his life, Chief Noonday befriended a reverend who wanted to build a mission in the area. Noonday was among the first to be baptized at this location, and he became very close with the family of the missionary who had baptized him. When Noonday was an old man, he passed away while visiting the Bradley Mission, and was buried back home alongside his wife

The truth is, that Gun Lake has ALWAYS looked pretty much like it does now. I’ve seen a map from 1873; and the lake is clearly recognizable as the large, single body of water that it is now. In the past, the massive, 20,000-acre “Gun Swamp” that formed the southern edge of the lake acted like a dam, to keep the lake at a fairly consistent level. The Gun Swamp was popular with waterfowl hunters; but was good for little else…… until someone planted a crop on a dry patch.

As a decades-long lake resident, I had been told that Gun Lake was originally a series of 5 or so lakes interconnected by a river until the dam was constructed, creating a unified lake. I had also heard stories of the local farmers dynamiting that dam from time to time? Thank goodness, that in 1957, a person named J.W. Hamp took the time to assemble and record the historical and legal details surrounding the creation of the Gun Lake Dam in a report called “A Brief History Of The Problems In Connection With Organization, Construction, And Maintenance Of The Gun River Drain With Some Significant Legal Details”. OK – the title is a bit wordy – but it was a fascinating read! Most of the following details come from that; other details come from copies of long-ago local newspaper articles, that Jan Lippert gave me.

Local farmers who were able to drain a few acres, reaped rich harvests from the fertile, muck-laden soil. The first Petition To Drain was received by the Allegan Drain Commissioner in 1892; others followed in 1896, 1897, 1900, 1908 and 1915. A newspaper headline from 1912 declares “Onion Fields Will Replace Big Marsh”! Farmland was selling for the unheard-of price of $150-$200 per acre by 1914! However, Gun Lake was also becoming a popular recreation area; beautiful resorts, hotels and cottages were being built; and the lakefront property owners realized that draining the swamp was also going to lower the level of the lake by 2′ or so. (THAT is where the concept of several deep lakes interconnected by a river must have come from – and probably happened as the lake levels fluctuated during the process of finding a happy medium for both sides).

In 1905, the Gun Lake Protective Association got a Circuit Court Injunction to halt drain

As a decades-long lake resident, I had been told that Gun Lake was originally a series of 5 or so lakes interconnected by a river until the dam was constructed, creating a unified lake. I had also heard stories of the local farmers dynamiting that dam from time to time? Thank goodness, that in 1957, a person named J.W. Hamp took the time to assemble and record the historical and legal details surrounding the creation of the Gun Lake Dam in a report called “A Brief History Of The Problems In Connection With Organization, Construction, And Maintenance Of The Gun River Drain With Some Significant Legal Details”. OK – the title is a bit wordy – but it was a fascinating read! Most of the following details come from that; other details come from copies of long-ago local newspaper articles, that Jan Lippert gave me.