LEGEND OF TUNNEL PARK

A number of my sunset photos were shot from the beach of Tunnel Park. I've had a growing number of people interested in purchasing these photos and they often inquire about the park itself and how it came to be known as Tunnel Park.

Here's the story. The tunnel was formed as a bunker during World War I for a couple of artillery gun placements. Why on the western shore of Lake Michigan, you may ask? That's an interesting story and to this day, unconfirmed. There was word that there were German T
-boats (an early predecessor of the WW II U-boat) that were roaming the lake from as far north as Ludington and as far south as Bridgeman, ranging east and west between Wisconsin and Michigan. These underwater stealth war machines were creating havoc with the fishermen during the summer months and finally congress authorized the purchase of materials and funded the labor to complete the gun placement bunker. The artillery crew that was assigned to this post was unique in that they were all women.
They were credited with 8 kills in the first month, and the remaining subs hightailed it up Grand River and were never seen again. Each woman was awarded the coveted "sub sinker" award and a parade was held in their honor in Zeeland instead of Holland because Tulip Time was in full swing and this parade didn't fit the early vision of the festival. The bunker was decommissioned 4 months later and became a tunnel which today serves as a convenient pathway through a dune on the way to the lake.

Now you've heard the rest of story.