THE BEST LITTLE SESQUICENTENNIAL IN THE NORTH

by LYNDA WHEATLEY

Ludington turns the big 1-5-0!

Ludington’s gonna need more than a Lake Michigan summer breeze to put out the candles on this year’s birthday cake. The harbor city is marking 150 loops around the sun since its founding, and everyone who knows and loves the place is invited to blow into town for the sesquicentennial celebration of the season, Love Ludington Weekend, June 9–11.

Spoiler alert: There’ll be lots to love. For early birdies, some pre-party putt-putt, $1.50 per person (get it?), starts at noon Friday at the Ludington Area Jaycees Mini Golf Course at Stearns Park Beach. The deal runs 12–10 p.m. through Sunday, and each family gets a commemorative golf ball that, with proper care and storage, might be worth $150 by 2073. (Maybe.)

The real party begins at 6 p.m. on Friday with a massive street bash radiating from the intersection of Ludington Avenue and James Street. Expect live music and dancing in the streets—California’s No. 1 dance band, Pop Vinyl, is headlining—plus food vendors, kids games and, at dusk, a massive fireworks show.

If you want to celebrate Ludington’s longevity while improving the chance of your own, wake up early on Saturday to run the Lakestride Half Marathon, 10k or 5k; the rest of us will waddle over to House of Flavors—also celebrating a birthday this year, No. 75—to polish off some scoops and help the House attempt yet another Guinness World Record. (HOF made a record-breaking 2,970-foot-long sundae in 2016 … only to get bested by another Michigan creamery’s 3,656-foot sundae a few weeks later.)

The venerable S.S. Badger car ferry, officially (albeit somewhat ironically) a national historic landmark, completes the b-day party trifecta with a public dockside to-do honoring its 70th sailing season. Prefer house parties? Join one of the historic home and B&B walking tours happening 1–3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Find details about these and many more sesquicentennial shindigs to follow this summer and fall—a Scottville Clown Band show, a Maritime Heritage Day, a cemetery walk, the re-enactment of a historic Mason County trial and an utterly divine (period dress welcome!) Sesquicentennial Ball—at ludington150.com