Silver Lake State Park is a major destination for dune buggy enthusiasts around the Midwest. They are drawn to the sand dunes nestled between Silver Lake and Lake Michigan, with amazing vistas and beautiful beaches on both lakes. The State Park dunes are separated into three areas – an ATV scramble area on the north side of the dunes, a foot travel area in the middle section, and a commercial southern section, leased by Mac Woods Dune Rides. These are classic forested lake dunes, with areas of shifting sand surrounding large clumps of trees and interdunal wetlands. It is an amazing area to explore, both by foot and by dune buggy.
The Scramble Area
The scenery in this add-on includes the large dune buggy parking lot on West Fox Road, and the access points to the dune scramble area (see the maps). Access is one-way. You enter the north edge of the scramble area by traveling along a north-south sand road, which is entered from the east side of the parking lot by passing through an entry booth near the maintenance building. The exit from the scramble area is on the south side, returning to the west end of the parking lot. I have added a POI so you can locate the parking lot, but don’t try to spawn using the POI, since the sim (for some reason) will plop you down far from the parking lot. Just click on a spot in the lot and choose it as your departure point.
Dune buggies are not allowed on the Lake Michigan beach, but there are no endangered piping plovers in the sim, so feel free to splash along the beach as far as you can roam!
The Lost Village
For several years in the 1960s, my family rented a cottage on Silver Lake near the dunes, where my father could relax during his two weeks of yearly vacation. While my teenage sisters went to nearby Pentwater to scope out the boys, my friends and I spent our time fishing and wandering the dunes. We had heard rumors that there was a lost village somewhere in the dunes, consisting of numerous small houses and other buildings that were slowly being consumed by the shifting sand. This seemed plausible, since there were several cottages near the dune access on North Shore Drive that were partly or mostly buried by sand. It was way too much for 10-year-old boys to ignore, and we spent many adventurous days searching for the village. Sadly, we never found it. Was it actually real, or just a myth?
In fact, the village was not a myth. In 1939, Michigan newspaperman Swift Lathers started to build a retreat in the dunes near Silver Lake where he could escape to from the stress of big-city life. By 1957, he had expanded the retreat to numerous small buildings, including cottages, a schoolhouse, a general store, a restaurant, and a chapel that was attended by worshipers from Grand Rapids. All of these were built by Lathers using lumber he transported by foot to the village site. Nestled among an island of trees in the sand dunes, the site gained the name “Dune Forest Village.” Many people trekked through the dunes to visit and stay in the village with Lathers. Sadly, by the late 1960s the structures were abandoned and decaying, and were starting to be consumed by the shifting dunes. The land was incorporated into Silver Lake State Park, and the structures were removed not long after Lathers died in 1970.
Dune Forest Village lives again in MSFS! I have added several structures among the trees for you to locate and explore. I’m not exactly sure where the Dune Forest Village was located (we never found it, after all). So, I have chosen an appropriate spot in the foot travel area of the State Park that you can search for. (Luckily, unlike in real life, you are allowed explore the foot travel area on your ATV.) But can you find it?
The Commercial Dune Scooter Area
The southern section of the dunes is reserved for commercial dune ride providers. There were two dune ride companies back in the 1960s when our family vacationed at Silver Lake, Mac Wood’s and Bill’s (founded by Bill Lathers in 1954). Bill’s Dune Rides offered both a thrill ride and a scenic ride, while Mac Wood’s concentrated on roller-coaster-like thrill rides. Bill’s went by the wayside in 1977, but Mac Wood’s is still going strong. The 2024 season will mark 94 years since Mac started his rides in 1930.
The great news is that the dune ride route appears as a road in the sim, and you can follow along and take the tour! Start at the Mac Wood’s Dune Ride facility on the corner of Silver Lake Road and N 18th Ave (I have added a POI for Mac Wood’s). Travel west on Silver Lake Road to the tee with N 14th Ave. Turn right and continue straight ahead and across the bridge. Look for the overhead sign for Mac Wood’s dune scooters. Crossing the bridge was an exciting event for this young boy, since it meant the start of an exciting adventure! Sadly, the bridge is not traversable in the sim – just ford the creek next to the bridge. From the bridge, follow the road as it passes through the woods and enters the dunes. It’s a great route, climbing several steep dunes with great vistas. There is even a short section along the Lake Michigan beach, where the drivers will create huge sprays of water as they zoom down the beach. Be sure to sit on the left side of the truck if you don’t want to get wet!
Notes
To install the scenery, unzip and place the folder titled "mulberrywing-scenery-silver-lake-parking" in your community folder.
This scenery is designed to be used with the Juice Goose dune buggy or a similar vehicle. But I suppose you could taxi the whole way in your Cessna 152 (wink!)
To see some of the dune buggies, you will need to install the Juice Goose from Parallel 42.
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