Harbor Springs History Museum

The cute little resort town of Harbor Springs, originally the home of Native Americans of the Odawa tribe, became a fishing and lumber community in the mid to late 1800s. During this same period the natural beauty of the region and the deep harbor drew tourists and investors who built summer houses and resorts.

All of the exhibits are on the ground floor of the Emmet County courthouse built in 1886.This is a very small museum with permanent and temporary exhibits. The temporary exhibit when we visited was an interesting look at the speakeasies and illegal gambling clubs that opened in the 1920s. Club Manitou had a fortified basement and escape routes for a gambling operation that lasted until it was raided in 1952.  It reopened as a teenage dance club in 1963, featuring live concerts by popular performers like Roy Orbison, the Four Tops, The Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, Del Shannon, The Animals, and The Turtles.

The museum is accessible except for an exhibit in the vault which has a step up. Follow the walkway around to the accessible entrance in the rear of the building.

We parked in the street but there is also an accessible parking spot behind the museum where vans and short RVs will fit. Museum  45.43074, -84.98542