Melrose Township in Walloon Lake in Charlevoix County, Michigan — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)

Hemingway at Walloon Lake

Photographed by J. J. Prats, September 24, 2023

1. Hemingway at Walloon Lake Marker, Side One

Inscription.
In 1899 the Hemingways of Oak Park, Illinois, built a summer cottage called Windemere some six miles northwest of here on Walloon Lake. Young Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) spent his days at the lake reading, fishing, hunting, and boating. In 1921 he and Hadley Richardson married at a Methodist church in Horton Bay and honeymooned at Windemere. Hemingway lived and traveled throughout the world, yet his boyhood experiences and the people he knew in Horton Bay and Walloon Lake continued to inspire his writing. Local friends such as Bill and Katy Smith and the Dilworths served as models for characters in his short stories and novels. Ernest Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954.

“All the love went into fishing and the summer. He had loved it more than anything. He had loved digging potatoes with Bill In the fall. ... The hills at the foot of Walloon Lake. storms on the lake... delivering vegetables around the lake... coming up from the foot of the lake with the groceries, the mail and the Chicago paper under a tarpaulin. ... the wind in the hemlocks and the wet pine needles underfoot

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when he was barefoot going for the milk. Getting up at daylight to row across the lake and hike over the hills after a rain to fish in Hortons Creek”.
—From “On Writing.” The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway. Copyright 1972 The Ernest Hemingway Foundation. Used courtesy of Scribner, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Ernest Hemingway drove ambulances in Italy during World War I, attended bullfights in Pamplona, and hunted big game in Africa. Like these worldwide experiences, his adventures in “Upper Michigan,” where he spent idyllic summers as a youth, influenced his work throughout his career. In 1924 he authored "On Writing.” a short story published in the 1972 anthology The Nick Adams Stories.

Erected 2009 by Michigan Historical Commission - Michigan Historical Center. (Marker Number 722.)

Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: Arts, Letters, Music. In addition, it is included in the Michigan Historical Commission series list. A significant historical year for this entry is 1899.

Location. 45° 15.739′ N, 84° 56.002′ W. Marker is in Walloon Lake, Michigan, in Charlevoix

Hemingway at Walloon Lake Marker, Side Two image. Click for full size.

Photographed by J. J. Prats, September 24, 2023

2. Hemingway at Walloon Lake Marker, Side Two

County. It is in Melrose Township. It is on South Shore Drive (Michigan Route 75) near State Street and North Shore Drive, on the left when traveling south. It is at the Melrose Township Park across the road from the foot of Walloon Lake. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Boyne City MI 49712, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in Northern Michigan Lower Peninsula,

in the Grand Traverse Bay Region,

and in one of the Lake Michigan Shore counties. It is also in the American Midwest.

Globally, it is in North America,

on the Great Lakes,

in the Western Hemisphere,

in the Western World,

and in the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Northwest Territory.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 6 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: Walloon Lake (about 400 feet away, measured in a direct line); Hemingway on Walloon (about 400 feet away); a different marker also named Walloon Lake (about 400 feet away); Walloon Hotel (about 400 feet away); Walloon Village (about 400 feet away); Walloon By Boat (about 400 feet away);

Hemingway at Walloon Lake Marker image. Click for full size.

Photographed by J. J. Prats, September 24, 2023

3. Hemingway at Walloon Lake Marker

Walloon Depot (about 500 feet away); La Chapelle Sisters (approx. 5.1 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Walloon Lake.

Also see . . . Ernest Hemingway in Michigan.

Travel to northern Michigan in the early Twentieth Century was an elaborate and time-consuming affair. After packing their trunks, suitcases, crates and barrels with food, kitchen wares, bedding, clothing and other necessities for the family, the Hemingways would make their way to the boat docks in downtown Chicago. There, they would board a massive steam ship like the Manitou, for the 24- to 32-hour trip up Lake Michigan to Harbor Springs (the deepest and naturally protected harbor in the region, on the northern shore of Little Traverse Bay). The fare was $5 per person (with meals and berth extra). ...

In Harbor Springs, the family and their belongings were transferred to a commuter train line – called a “dummy” – which would traverse east and south to the downtown Petoskey depot. Bright red passenger cars with open vestibules and hard wooden seats were pulled along the tracks by small black engines. The fare for this part of the trip
Photographed by Joel Seewald, April 13, 2026

4. Hemingway at Walloon Lake Marker
View of the marker looking north along M-75 into the village of Walloon Lake.
was 15-cents, per person each way (at least for adults). As many as two dozen of these trains ran daily between the communities, with five stops along the 25-minute, 8-mile trip.

Once in downtown Petoskey, the family and their gear would transfer to yet another train line for the second to last leg of the trip to Walloon Lake some 8.5 miles to the south. As the crystal blue waters of Walloon Lake came into view, the Hemingways knew the were almost home to Windemere. While a horse-drawn wagon would transport their belongings, the family would board another, smaller, steam vessel called the Tourist, which delivered summer residents to their cottages and vacationers to the dozen-plus resorts scattered around the lake.

(Submitted on October 4, 2023.)

“The Foot” of Walloon Lake image. Click for full size.

Photographed by J. J. Prats, September 24, 2023

5. “The Foot” of Walloon Lake

This view is from near the marker.

<i>The Nick Adams Stories,</i><br>by Ernest Hemingway image. Click for more information.

6. The Nick Adams Stories,
by Ernest Hemingway

Advertisement. From one of the 20th century's greatest voices comes the complete chronological anthology of his short stories featuring Nick Adams, Ernest Hemingway's memorable character, as he grows from child to adolescent to soldier, veteran, writer, and parent—a sequence closely paralleling the events of Hemingway's life.
Click for more information.
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Credits. This page was last revised on May 4, 2026. It was originally submitted on October 4, 2023, by J. J. Prats of Powell, Ohio. This page has been viewed 635 times since then and 78 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on October 4, 2023, by J. J. Prats of Powell, Ohio. 4. submitted on April 28, 2026, by Joel Seewald of Madison Heights, Michigan. 5. submitted on October 4, 2023, by J. J. Prats of Powell, Ohio. 6. submitted on October 4, 2023.