150 years of history in Mears continued

1919–1935: The Mears Post Office was located in the old George Reid Building.

1920s: The Silver Lake School burns. The district is split between Peach Ridge and Willson. Batham, Round Lake, Willson, and a part of Hovey joined Mears to eventually form Golden School.

1920’s - One hundred acres overlooking the dunes and Lake Michigan are purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Moses Davis, retired black school teachers, who use them for growing fruit, vegetables, and livestock. Later, their daughter Lila and her husband David O. Duncan acquired it and invited many friends to enjoy it with them, nicknaming the location “Val-DuLakes Farm Resort”.

1925: Swift Lathers begins building Dune Forest Village in the sand dunes of what is now Silver Lake State Park. It would be in existence until 1970, when state park rangers removed it due to vandalism.

1926: Passenger rail service from Mears to Pentwater ends.

1927: Mac Woods discovers he could drive his “jitney” over the rain-soaked dunes. Later, he discovers that by letting some of the air out of his Model-A Ford tires, he could travel on the dry dunes. The Silver Lake Sand Dunes begin to grow into a resort destination.

1927: Development of Silver Lake State Park begins.

1929: Freight rail service from Mears to Pentwater ends. When rail lines were taken out, many small towns turned into ghost towns. However, nearly 100 years later, Mears is still working to stay alive and relevant.

1933: The Mears railroad line to Pentwater is torn up due to a lack of patronage.

1934: The Mears Cider Mill is built by Frank Fenton for M. Steffen & Co. of Chicago.

1935–1959: The Mears Post Office is located in a small building next to the Mobil Gas Station.

1939: Henry Vavrina, the last resident keeper of the Little Point Sable lighthouse, moves to the area with his wife.

1940’s: Prisoners of War, living at the Oceana County Fairgrounds, supply the Fenton Cider Mill with much-needed labor during WWII.

1946: Norman and Clifton Fenton buy the Fenton Cider Mill business from their father and change the name to Fenton Brothers. Norman’s wife, Elise, becomes their longtime office secretary and bookkeeper.

1940s: John Flood opens Old Trail Stables. Rides took place on many trails formerly used by loggers and stagecoaches.

1946: Grace Youth Camp opens as a summer youth camp.

1949: Oil is discovered in the Morris Lake area; at one time, there were three producing wells there. A pipeline is built to the village, and huge oil storage tanks are built within the village to store this new commodity. At the same time, Elmer Krantz builds cabins on Fourth Street and apartments in the downtown area for the oil men.

1955: The Little Point Sable lighthouse is converted to automatic status; a large brick keeper’s residence is torn down.

1956: Johnson Tree Farms begins operations.

1959: After having been located in at least four different buildings over the years, the present Mears Post Office is built and dedicated.

1960s: Fenton Brothers starts receiving sweet cherries from local growers for Liberty Cherry out of Buckley, Michigan, for the production of maraschino cherries.

1961: The Golden Elementary School is built just to the west of the former school built in 1907.

1966: Grace Youth Camp (now Grace Adventures) moves to 30 acres on Upper Silver Lake, where it is still located today.

1970: Swift Lathers passes, and the Mears Newz publication comes to an end. The Swift Lathers home was donated to the Oceana County Historical and Genealogical Society for the purpose of creating a museum to display artifacts.

1970’s: Fenton Brothers begins running a “pit station” east of Mears for the purpose of supplying brined cherries to Gray & Company in Hart.

1970: Golden Township passes a resolution to allow alcoholic beverage takeout from local stores.

1972: Golden Elementary School becomes part of the Hart Public School District.

1973: Mears 100th Celebration includes three days of activities. At that time the village included the following businesses: Mears Food Store, owned by Terry Corliss (a grocery store formerly owned by Keith Corliss, Chester Brubaker and a Mr. Averill), Mobil gas station (owned by Ronald Foster), Gold-