The history of my family begins on Spring Bank, where my grandmother, Maude Miller and her husband Clem, vacationed in the early 20th century. We found a postcard she had sent to Clem’s mother, her mother-in-law, describing what a great time her son was having on Lake George, no doubt making some good points with Clem’s mom.

Many years later, around 1947, my mother Martha, her sister Marguerite, and my sister Gretchen rented a house they called Mrs. Dunkerly’s Dump. The name was descriptive as the cottage was infested with mice. The house was located on Nipigon Beach, next to the little lighthouse.

Later, around 1948, my parents, Art and Martha, and my sisters Gretchen and Melinda vacationed on Nipigon. One summer, Gretchen went for a walk northward on the dirt road behind the cottages. Behind one cottage, there was a bunch of hunting dogs chained up and eating their dinner. She unwittingly got too close to the dogs and was bitten in the hip and leg. My mom took her to Dr. Blosser in Fremont, who administered an outdated form of a Tetanus shot made from horse serum. Within hours, Gretchen developed a severe allergic reaction and was in great pain, so much so that she could not turn over in bed. Our parents were desperate, and a neighbor connected them to Dr. Kuebbeler, whose cottage was nearby. He came over with his black bag and gave her a shot that quickly put her in recovery. That was the beginning of a long friendship with the Kuebbeler family that lasts to this day.

Dr. Kuebbeler suggested that my parents build on Lake George and mentioned that there was land for sale on Kope Kon beach. At the time, Sigmund and Beniti Wing owned all the land that is now Kope Kon and Bayview. A sale was negotiated for lot #75, and a deed was drafted in December 1951. At that time, there were 6 occupied homes – from east to west: Wings, Wing’s daughters’ house, Bolyard’s, Haun’s, Grays, and unknown. Wings provided water from their well to all of us. I am guessing that our cottage was built in the summer of 1951, and we occupied the new cottage in 1952. Ownership has passed down through the family and is now in our family’s hands.

Photo one: Brenneke cottage taken from Art Brenneke’s plane circa 1952. Note the island at the top, which is now part of mainland Bayview. Later land purchases were Grandy’s on the tip of Kope Kon, lot 78 in 1956. John Bender purchased the lot between us and Grandy’s in 1957.

Photo two: The original cottage was torn down in the fall of 2001, and a new year-round home was built to accommodate us to this day as year-round residents.

Weir and Irisellen Swaim, Tim’s first cousins once removed, lived in Fort Wayne and bought on the lake in 1939. Tim’s grandfather was a rural mail carrier at the time in Montpelier, IN, and also an amateur investor. The Swaims called his grandfather and told him, “I’m thinking of buying a lot on Lake George,” and Tim’s grandfather replied, “Heck, I’d buy two.”

The Swaims ended up buying six lots, which resulted in a large chunk of property, measuring nearly an acre. In 2022, Tim and Sarah, along with neighbors Deb Van Aman and Andy/Erin Robbins, purchased approximately 1 acre of woods to the south and adjacent to the three neighbors.

The cottage was originally a service station along Old 27, and in 1939, the Swaims moved it down through the woods to use it as their home.

Tim grew up visiting Lake George as a kid in the summer with his family, who rented a place on Kope Kon. The Swaims originally had a wooden boat, followed by a pontoon, an Inland Cat, and finally a speedboat, in later years used by their daughter Nancy for skiing. Tim remembers growing up fishing with his two brothers and using cane poles and catching one another’s ear lobes, but no fish.

Weir Swaim passed in 1990, and in late 1992, Tim contacted Irisellen Swaim to see if she was interested in selling the cottage. Irisellen agreed, wanting it to stay in the family.

In 1993, Irisellen Swaim sold the property to Tim and Sarah, along with Sarah’s brother and sister-In-law, Tom and Kim Tharp.
Tim, Sarah, and family took possession on January 1, 1993. It was a seasonal cottage, so closed up each winter.

Having made nearly 25 years of memories, the family could not bear to tear down the original cottage and chose to renovate it to preserve the original structure. Tim and Sarah’s daughters grew up spending the entire summer at Lake George, and though they are grown now, they still frequent the lake to make more memories. In 2016, the original cottage was renovated, and an addition was added. Finally, more than one bathroom!! In 2017, Tim and Sarah, both retired, moved to Lake George full-time.

Photo one: The original cottage being moved through the woods in 1939.
Photo two: Nancy Swaim in the front yard
Photo three: Tim and Sarah Burke

The year was 1940 and Edward and Loraine Young of Ft Wayne decided to take the plunge and purchase a small lake cabin in the greater Angola area. Ed contacted his friend Carl Stogdill, a realtor living on Spring Bank on Lake George. Carl just so happened to have just the ticket. A small carriage house also on Spring Bank Lake George (Cottage 99) that was once the stable /horse barn for a larger near buy cottage. Their new cottage was setback from the lake by about 100 yards, but it did have a 10’ easement to the lake which went directly to their new boat house. The converted two story stable/barn was located up on a hill just over looking the lake to the S.W. and and abutting old US 27 to the N.E. Ed, Loraine, and their two children Don and Marilyn (generation 2) began enjoying the cottage right away, but alas WWII had other plans including gas rationing which made recreational trips up to the lake out of the question.

Fast forward a few years and after the war, both of their children married and started families of their own (generation 3). Don married Mary Cleland and they had three children Barb (Wulsin), Patty (Vail), and Janet (Richter). Marilyn married George Finkbeiner and they had two children, Carol (Zandstra), and Jon Finkbeiner.

Before you knew it, in the 60’s and 70’s, this small cottage, which had garnered the comedic nicknames of “The Summer Palace” and “Scenic Overlook” had as many as 11 occupants and a couple of great dogs on any given weekend sleeping on any sofa, bed, cot, or fold down boat seat available. And while the original cottage’s outhouse had been replaced with a bathroom, there was only one to accommodate the crew.

Typical lake activities during these years included the traditional waterskiing, tubing (the kind where the tube was an innertube from an old tractor tire), “ Lawn Jarts”, and hide and go seek in the water across three docks. The best prank among the cousins and siblings was @lling a bucket full of very cold Spring Bank boat house troth water and then dousing an unsuspecting sunbather. At night the blended families enjoyed potluck dinners on the giant beloved picnic table which sat 12 to 14 depending on age, weight and balance.

Sadly, Loraine and Edward passed away in 1960 and 1970 respectively, but their legacy continued. After Loraine passed away, Ed remarried to Victoria Gross and “Aunt Vic” @t in perfectly with the families. She could always be found on the porch in a lounge chair listening to a broadcast of her beloved Chicago White Sox baseball team.

In the 80’s and 90’s the 4th generation made their appearance as 9 great grandchildren were born and began the pilgrimage to the lake. Slowly, as life happens, some of the “kids” moved away from the area, but the cottage was purchased by Janet and her husband Jim and along with their daughters Haley and Andrea became “caretakers” and “restorers” of the cottage until they sold it in 2019.

In the meantime, Carol Zandstra, who had earlier moved to the Chicagoland area, retired and moved back into a new Lake George cottage also on Spring Bank with her husband Gary and daughter Lee. Patty and her husband Jim and their two children Brian and Joe had already purchased their own home on Lake George not far from the marina. Barb and her husband Stocky and their children Luke, Anna and Douglas moved to Cincinnati but visited frequently.

With the turn of the century, Jon Finkbeiner and his wife Brenda, who had been living in Connecticut for 40 years, retired and moved back to Lake George onto the Michigan side.

In 2019 Janet and Jim Richter sold the original cottage to a neighbor and purchased a home just down the road from the original one also on Spring Bank. The neighbor wanted the property for a new garage and sadly the cottage was demolished.

The story and generational tale does not end there, however. In 2025, Janet and Jim’ s daughter Haley, her husband Hunter and their daughter Greta (generation 5) purchased a home on Lake George which they hope to retire to someday (they currently live in Boston).

So in a nutshell;
– Original Cottage 99 purchased in 1940 by Edward and Loraine Young
– Eighty-six years later, four of their @ve grandchildren, and now their great great grandchild have a home on Lake George.
– All the members of the “Young” family tree who either live or still visit the lake call it “Home”

Loving memories and a very heartfelt “Thank You” to Edward and Loraine for allowing all of us the opportunity to carry forward the torch for what will hopefully be 6 or more generations on this great lake!

At 100 years old the cottage at 371 Kope Kon Pointe has been the summer retreat for the extended Gray family since the late 1920’s.

Harry and Marilla Maddux began their journey to Lake George with their young 4 year old granddaughter, Mary Jane Wisecup (Gray). Harry, a school teacher by trade with fishing in his heart rented the Mutt and Jeff cottage on Spring Bank.

Harry spotted a great fishing spot and an unfinished cottage on Kope Kon Pointe. With renovations the cottage became a more permanent summer home for Mary Jane’s adventures, life long friendships and her love of lake life.

She also fell in love at college with “her fella” G.G. Gray. Married and with their two young children Debbie and Mike, Mary Jane and G.G. purchased the cottage from her grandparents in 1957.

The next generation of Gray’s made each summer’s adventures more grand than the year before; sailing, skiing, tennis and 4th of July celebration traditions to name a few.

With the passing of G.G. Gray in 1992, Mary Jane continued lake life summer traditions with her growing family of grandchildren (5) and great grandchildren (8).

Mary Jane Wisecup Gray passed away in 2018. The cottage at 371 Kope Kon Pointe Rd passed to Mark and Debbie Redder, Mike and Susie Gray and a million memories for their families to cherish for generations to come.

Mary Jane and G.G. Grays Lake George legacy continues !

On June 1, 1959, Marl and Helen Campbell purchased Lot #3 of Paradice Park—a wooded parcel nestled in the Kope Kon Bay area of Lake George—from Earl and Effie Dice and Willard and Pauline Dice of Auburn, Indiana. The purchase price was $3,000, with a $500 down payment and monthly installments of $27.75. Upon reviewing the payment terms, Marl turned to his son, Jim Campbell, and sighed with a grin, “How am I ever going to pay for this?”

The Dices had acquired a tract of land in 1957 from longtime Lake George residents Beniti Wing and Adaline Kershaw. They subdivided it into five lots, forming what became known as Paradice Park. Lot #3 came with several notable—and now outdated—restrictions. Among them were racial covenants, a minimum home size of 720 square feet, prohibitions against boat houses and livestock (except for dogs and songbirds). Another clause allowed only household servants to reside in a garage dwelling. Ironically, the only home in the area that actually had a servant living above a garage was the Wing residence itself—complete with a separate entrance for the live-in maid.

That summer, Marl, Helen, their son Jim, and son-in-law Jack McAfee worked tirelessly to clear the wooded lot, dig the foundation, and construct a 1,200-square-foot, all-season home. The Campbells envisioned their Lake George property as both a retirement haven and a family gathering place—a setting for relaxation, laughter, and lifelong memories. Their three-bedroom, one-bath home included space for their two children and four grandchildren to enjoy weekend visits at the lake.

At the time of its completion in 1959, the Campbell home was one of the largest on Kope Kon Bay and among the few designed for year-round living. Until 1962, access to the main body of Lake George was limited to a narrow, 200-foot channel cut through a dense stretch of lily pads. That year, the Kope Kon Bay homeowners joined forces to dredge the bay, removing stumps and logs and deepening it to four feet—greatly improving lake access and transforming the area for generations to come.

Marl and Helen’s new home quickly became the heart of family life. Their lakeside dream evolved into a lively retreat filled with games of badminton and croquet, family dinners overlooking the water, and friendly fireworks “competitions” across the lake with the Don Hall family each Fourth of July.

Throughout the 1960s, the Campbell’s Lake George home served mainly as a weekend escape from Fort Wayne, Indiana. As Interstate 69 stretched northward, reaching the lake became easier than ever. A new highway exit less than a mile away brought an end to the slow, bumper-to-bumper Sunday night traffic on U.S. 27—and ushered in a new era of convenient, carefree weekends at the lake.
In 1971, Marl and Helen realized their long-held dream and retired full-time to Lake George. The home soon buzzed with activity as three generations gathered to celebrate holidays, milestones, and countless summer weekends. By the 1980s and 1990s, a fourth generation had arrived, and the cozy 1,200-square-foot cottage overflowed with joy. Great-grandchildren “camped out” in the living room, filling the home with laughter late into the night.

Helen passed away in 1995, followed by Marl in 1998. Their beloved lake home—and the enduring spirit they built there—passed to their daughter Marlene and son-in-law Jack McAfee. The following year, in 1999, the home underwent a major remodel and expansion, growing to 1,700 square feet with four bedrooms and two bathrooms. Modern upgrades such as air conditioning, natural gas, and a connection to the new sewer system replacing the old septic tank—putting an end to those memorable trips to the nearby truck stop or outlet mall restrooms!
Jack and Marlene carried on the Campbell’s cherished traditions, hosting countless summer weekends filled with family, friends, and lakefront fun. They enjoyed nearly twenty wonderful years of retirement at Lake George before Jack’s passing in 2018 and Marlene’s in 2021.

Their son and daughter-in-law, Bruce and Carol McAfee, became the third generation to call Paradice Park Lot #3 home. In late 2020, they began a complete tear-down and rebuild of the original structure, completing their new home with five bedrooms and four bathrooms in early 2021. Like those before them, they now enjoy year-round retirement living on the peaceful shores of Lake George.
Today, a fifth generation of family visits on weekends and holidays, enjoying many of the same activities begun in the 1960s—swimming, boating, tubing, waterskiing and gathering for meals filled with laughter and stories of earlier days. Marl and Helen’s vision of family togetherness, lovingly upheld by Jack and Marlene, has become a lasting legacy of love, laughter, and lake life.
The return on investment from Marl and Helen’s original $3,000 purchase of Paradice Park Lot #3 in 1959 is immeasurable and truly priceless.

In 1940, Wehler Porsch purchased six lots on Brown’s Point West. He and his wife, Esther, built a two-story farm-style home on the property closest to the lake in 1940. At the time, it was one of the largest homes built around Lake George.

They would spend summers here, enjoying the lake, fishing, staying up late with the neighbors playing cards, and having family and friends visit. In his later years, Wehler would stay here until well after Labor Day, using only the fireplace for heat since the home had no furnace. Finally, the family would have to “make him” close up the cottage for winter when it got too cold to stay.

The cottage passed to Wehler and Esther’s daughter-in-law, Marrietta, in 1979. Their son, Dale, passed in 1976, but Wehler felt Marrietta was the right person to carry on the Porsch tradition here.  She, along with her children, Sylvia, Greg, and Mark, continued this with long summer’s enjoying fishing, swimming, and having family here every weekend during the summer, and even came up for ice fishing on occasion during the winter.

In 1993, the house passed to Greg Porsch and his wife, Deanna. They tore down some of the original cottage and added on in 1997. Greg and Deanna did a lot of the electrical, plumbing, and finishing work themselves. This included staining all the woodwork for the trim, doors,  installing banister railings, and laying hardwood flooring and tile.

They moved here full-time when Greg retired in 2011, spending evenings enjoying scenic boat rides and fishing, as well as spending time with neighbors. After nine years, they decided it was time to downsize, and the home was sold to their son Chris and his wife Leigh Ann Porsch, the fourth generation of Porsch’s to enjoy Lake George.

Chris and Leigh Ann decided to move here from Illinois in February of 2020, before COVID was in full swing. By March, when lockdowns were in effect, Greg and Deanna had home plans developed and were in the process of purchasing property in Angola. Worried about their jobs, Chris and Leigh Ann took a leap of faith and moved forward with their plans, and in November, when their home was sold, they moved to Lake George full-time. Greg and Deanna moved into Glendarin full-time in December.

Chris is able to work from home, but also travels for work, so the move ultimately did not affect his job. Leigh Ann retired from her marketing and public relations position and was able to pursue her dream of being an author. She has published four books under her pen name, with the fifth coming out this summer.

Growing up, Chris spent summers at Lake George first with his grandparents, then visiting his parents on weekends when he and Leigh Ann married in 2002. Incidentally, their wedding shower took place at Lake George.

Moving here had been easy, although the decision during COVID had been stressful. Chris’s childhood friends in the neighboring houses remain, each having been passed the home from their own parents. They are both involved with the various boards around the lake. Chris served on the Lake George Conservation Board during the Dam Renovation project and now serves as VP on the Cottagers Board. He is also the Brown’s Point West Beach Director, inheriting that from Ed and Jackie Usler in 2023. Leigh Ann serves on the Lake George Conservancy and is the new editor of The Breeze Newsletter.

Chris and Leigh Ann enjoy spending time with their growing group of Lake George friends and neighbors, hosting friends and family at their house, and taking quiet pontoon rides to enjoy our beautiful sunsets.

Photo one: Standing, Dale and Wehler, Seated, Great-Grandpa Porsch, and Greg about four years old.
Photo two: The original cottage, 1941-1997. Some walls remain as part of the current home.
Photo three: L-R: Wehler, Dale, Greg, and baby Chris, 1970.