Muskegon County,
Municipality by Municipality

It was the control city. Researchers needed a comparison town of similar size drawing similar water, so Muskegon kept its water unchanged while Grand Rapids added fluoride, and the two cities were measured against each other for a decade. Source

Sawmills lined Muskegon Lake through the second half of the 1800s, with roughly 32 operating by 1870 and dozens more at the peak. In 1887 the city's mills cut about 665 million board feet in a single season. Source

Charles H. Hackley made his money in Muskegon lumber and gave much of it back before his death in 1905. His gifts were valued at roughly $12 million at the time and paid for the public library, a hospital, an art museum and a downtown park. Source

The USS Silversides completed 14 war patrols in the Pacific and is credited with sinking 23 vessels totaling about 90,080 tons, among the highest counts of any American submarine in the war. She earned twelve battle stars and came to Muskegon in 1987. Source

Yes. On December 22, 1942, with no doctor aboard, Pharmacist's Mate Thomas Moore removed a crewman's appendix on the Silversides wardroom table while the boat was submerged near Rabaul. The patient was back on watch within a week. Source

The USS LST 393 is one of only two Landing Ship Tanks still afloat out of 1,051 built during the war. She carried troops and armor to Sicily, Salerno and the Normandy beaches, and now serves as a veterans museum. Source

The Muskegon Luge Adventure Sports Park in Muskegon State Park runs a refrigerated track that is one of only a handful in the country and one of the very few open to the general public. Riders take a short lesson, then go down feet first. Source

Buster Keaton. His father Joe was the first president of the Bluffton Actors' Colony, founded June 14, 1908, where vaudeville performers built summer cottages on the lakeshore. A Michigan historical marker went up at the site in 1997. Source

James Newell Osterberg Jr., known worldwide as Iggy Pop, was born in Muskegon on April 21, 1947. He was raised near Ypsilanti, so the Muskegon tie is his birthplace rather than his upbringing. Source

It was removed from the binational list of Great Lakes Areas of Concern on September 26, 2025, after being listed in 1987. All nine environmental problems that put it on the list had been addressed, making it the eighth U.S. site ever delisted. Source

Michigan's Adventure sits in Muskegon County near Whitehall, with more than 60 rides, slides and attractions and seven roller coasters, more than any other park in the state. An outdoor water park shares the grounds. Source

Still debated It is widely repeated as exactly 227 miles, but published figures range from about 212 to 227 depending on who measured and where they started. It is consistently described as Michigan's second longest river, running from Houghton Lake to Muskegon Lake. Source