September 13, 2022 One More Thing

The Liberty Gazette

September 13, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: One more thing about Holland, Michigan. After the sunrise beach stroll, we figured we’d check out Big Red, the most photographed lighthouse in the state, then visit an airport that is shown on the FAA charts as closed, then do some gift shopping in the quaint town. The lighthouse, it turns out, is surrounded by private property and not accessible to the public. No problem. We’ve seen lots of lighthouses, like President Trump’s Turnberry Lighthouse in Ayr, Scotland (birthplace of Robert the Bruce, Scotland’s greatest king), which is open to the public. So seeing Big Red from afar was fine. That gave us more time for other things, like the former military training airfield along Ottawa Beach Road, Park Township Airport. It’s one of the oldest airports and the first to employ a woman-owned and managed Fixed Base Operator (FBO) in the Great Lakes state.

Park Township Airport began in 1937 as a private airfield managed by aviatrix Peg Malone. It was an airmail stop, and Peg had plans to offer regular passenger airline service between Milwaukee and New York, with stops at Holland, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Syracuse. However, effects of the Great Depression prevented that. 

Then, in 1939, the airfield was used to train more than 100 military pilots through a program with Hope College, and as a helicopter training ground as well. The runway is gone, but we traipsed all over the ramp taking pictures and poked around in the historic hangar, where Civil Air Patrol cadet squadron MI-135 still meets. The last chapter of the airport’s long and distinguished history was written two years ago, after a newer, bigger airport, Western Michigan Regional, had been serving the customers with more and better amenities. 

We had survived the entire sunrise beach walk and paid our respects to a piece of aviation history, all without coffee. It was time to bean-up. I pulled out my phone to start searching when suddenly, there we were, in front of KIN Coffee and Craft House, just down the street from the airport. It’s owned by a family with a small farm. Their story goes that they had seven sheep, and cousins Lynn and Jamie were visiting over a very large ball of wool from the farm (which wasn’t yet yarn, but they were working on that). After brainstorming about their shared interests and dreams, they made plans to convert an old Dutch barn into a gorgeous coffee shop. It’s a cozy place with books, crafts, and tasteful décor. I had an oat milk cappuccino and Mike had black coffee. We picked a table, one of the ones that snuggles up to a long, old wooden church pew bench on the wall-side. We gave our thanks and shared a perfect blueberry muffin, bursting with juicy berries. 

I know I said at the start of this, “One more thing about Holland,” but I didn’t realize I’d get to the end so quickly. So next week, we’ll have one more thing. Promise.

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