If anyone understands the need to eliminate plastic it would be Martha Vermeulen.
As one of the organizers of the Friends of the Buck Creek Annual Clean Up, which took place in August, Vermeulen and the team have pulled out lots of plastic along with styrofoam and tires out of the river.
“We estimate we pull about a half ton of trash out of the creek every year,” Vermeulen said.
Unfortunately, plastic, styrofoam, and tires are not the only items the volunteers have found. In the past there have been a dryer, partial dishwasher, drums of mysterious liquids, and tennis balls.
“Lots of balls seem to make it in the river,” Vermeulen said. “This year’s most unusual item was a volunteer thought there was a body in the water as it was floating face down. It turned out to be a doll.”
First started by Trout Unlimited, the clean up has been taking place about seven years. The group primarily focuses on the Buck Creek in the Grandville and Wyoming area, selecting about seven sites along the river with a mix of brand new and repeat locations.
And while every year it can seem frustrating on the amount of trash removed, the positive is the number of people who come out each year to help with the clean up.
“We had more than 100 people come out this year,” Vermeulen said. “The better benefit is having people come out and see what is in the river. What our throwaway society does to our watershed.
“Hopefully they begin to reuse things more. Maybe they say this is the year I get that water filter and refill a stainless water bottle.”
The Buck Creek, which is one of the few cold water creeks that runs through a municipality, empties into the Grand River, which the West Michigan Environmental Action Council’s 16th Annual Mayor’s Grand River Cleanup is set for Saturday, Sept. 14, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The event starts at the 6th Street Park in Grand Rapids. Refreshments before the event and a light lunch after with a beverage garden (must be 21 or old with ID) will be hosted by Founders Brewery and Cascade Blonde.
Tires — 22 to be exact — along mental signage and other trash was just some of the items Martha Stout Vermeulen remembers pulling from the Buck Creek during the first clean up.
Now in its fourth year, the Buck Creek Clean Up is an annual event when residents of Grandville, Wyoming, and Kentwood roll up their sleeves — with a few donning waiters — and spend a Saturday morning, Aug. 5, cleaning up a portion of Buck Creek which travels through the three cities as it makes its way to the Grand River.
The event starts at 8 a.m. at Wyoming’s Lemry Park, 4050 Byron Center Ave. SW, with a light breakfast provided by Biggby Coffee, and Marge’s Donut Den, and orientation that includes free t-shirts. Participants will head out in teams to look for trash and other foreign objects along a variety of Buck Creek locations.
“Last year, from the communities of Wyoming and Grandvile we pulled 80 bags of trash,” said Vermeulen, who serves as the president of the Friends of Buck Creek. The Friends of Buck Creek and Schrems Trout Unlimited host the annual clean up.
Buck Creek, which is about 20 miles long starting in Allegan County, is a cold water stream which holds a viable trout population, all of which is rare to find in an urban setting. For that reason, Schrems Trout Unlimited, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Lower Grand River Organization of Watersheds have highlighted Buck Creek as a threatened stream in need of protection. Two years ago, Schrems Trout Unlimited was awarded a $25,000 grant to assess the water quality in the Buck Creek watershed.
“It was warming,” Vermeulen said. “There was just ignorance as to what was going. There was a lot of fertilizers draining into the creek and other pollutants.”
The area focused on through the clean up efforts has improved with Vermeulen noting that there is trout in that portion of the creek where in other sections the water has become too warm for any fish.
But Vermeulen, who comes from an environmentally-conscious family and lives near Buck Creek, said the greater success has been helping people really care about their environment and their resources so much that they help to protect it.
“Recently, there was a Grandville school teacher who has students go to Buck Creek and do some testing and discussions,”Vermeulen said. “They then built a rain garden for the school parking lot.”
Vermeulen added there is all kinds of things people can do throughout the year to help the creek from adding trees to help shade it to construction a rain garden, which helps to absorb rain runoff that may carry pesticides and fertilizers applied to lawns and other plants.
There is also helping to pitch and care for Buck Creek by removing trash and other items that should not be in the creek.
For more information on the Buck Creek Clean Up, visit swmtu.org. For Friends of the Buck Creek, find the group on Facebook or email Vermeulen at erma00@sbcglobal.net. The clean up is from 8 – 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 5, starting at Charles Lemery Park, 4050 Byron Center Ave. SW. For those who volunteer on Saturday, lunch will be provided at Grandville’s Osgood Brewing.
Registration is now open for the 3rd Annual Buck Creek Cleanup, which will be held this year on Saturday, August 13 from 8 am to noon and includes a free lunch. Check in at Lemery Park (4212 Byron Center Ave. SW in Wyoming) at 8 am.
Spend the morning cleaning up trash along and in Buck Creek while meeting new friends. Start with a Biggby coffee and Marge’s Donut Den breakfast, meet your team leader to get directions and a super cool t-shirt, then head out to various sites along the creek.
Car pool with your neighbors and wear clothing that you don’t mind getting dirty, comfortable shoes, waders, or boots are great. (Flip-flops are poison ivy-friendly.) Bring bug spray and a reusable water bottle (stainless steel is eco-friendly.) Gloves will be provided unless you have a favorite pair. Supervised children are welcome.
All volunteers are invited to an Osgood Brewing lunch, compliments of Grandville Mayor Steve Maas.
Contact Pete Miller 517.420.4003 for more information or to sign up, or go here to register. For more info, go here.
This event is being organized by Schrems Trout Unlimited and the newly formed Friends of Buck Creek. Friends of Buck Creek is a group of concerned residents, businesses and governmental units that are interested in improving Buck Creek. Buck Creek is more than 20 miles long,and has an approximate watershed area of 50 square miles. Currently Buck Creek is a cold water resource that is highly threatened because of its urban nature.
Find out how you can help save the 1834 property for future generations!
“If the planning commission refuses our request to be sanctioned a community center, we are done,” says Simon-Tibbe. “All the hard work of volunteers, board members and our benefactor will be a missed opportunity to preserve a piece of Wyoming’s history. We could lose it forever.”
by Dorothy Simon-Tibbe and Janice Limbaugh
The original log house from 1834 remains a part of the house after several renovations and additions through the years.
It is perhaps the oldest secret in the city of Wyoming. Hidden in the woods near busy Byron Center Avenue, a gem of local history sits quietly in the shadows of aging hardwoods. The two-story home on three acres along Buck Creek goes back to the 1830’s, when it was the site of a sawmill that provided lumber used to build the village at Grandville, the area’s first homes, and the city of Chicago. The Dewey-Wedgwood Home at Beckmaze holds over 180 years of forgotten stories and undiscovered treasures that one local woman is bound and determined to bring to light.
“I was born to do this,” says Kelly Hogan, a life-time Wyoming resident. “There’s more than what is in plain view around you. There’s rich history here that you wouldn’t see if you didn’t know what to look for.”
Between the house and Buck Creek is a clearing where deer like to visit on a regular basis.
Ever since Hogan stumbled across the property, she’s grown more and more passionate about preserving it and establishing the house as a local landmark and educational center. It is not an easy task. Working alongside her is Wyoming historian Dorothy Simon-Tibbe who wrote the following narrative describing the uniqueness and importance of this endeavor:
Adjacent to the house is Buck Creek where remnants of a bridge are still visible. The road over the stone bridge was the original Byron Center Avenue.
Imagine standing in a dense forest of virgin white pine towering over the clear flowing waters of Buck Creek in 1832! You have followed a survey just completed by Lucius Lyon and Sylvester Sibley in 1831, and will claim this land in the Michigan Territory by registering with the U.S. government to gain patent at White Pigeon.
In 2014, the Dewey-Wedgewood Home at Beckmaze (2551 Oaklane S.W. in Wyoming) stands proud on this very spot 180 years later. Beckmaze Historical Society has been given this beautiful historic home on three acres of land contiguous to Buck Creek. The original log cabin, built in 1834, is within the walls of the existing building, albeit many additions have been made.
Beckmaze Historical Society was established purposely to preserve what remains of a historic estate that once contained over 1100 acres of land and played a significant role in local history from the very beginning of settlement in the Grand River Valley. The Society claims that this is the oldest surviving residence on an original foundation, and no other is as important to preserve as this one.
A side view of the home in 1970.
A side view of the home today.
The effort to preserve the property began in 2008 when Hogan and Simon-Tibbe first inspected the property and since then the two have been joined by several others. Now that the home has been secured, the community has the opportunity of a lifetime!
The Beckmaze Historical Society is a 501-c-3 designated non-profit and needs volunteers and donations to sustain the restoration. The first order of business is to restore the home to its former glory so that it will survive into the future. The plan is to use it to educate the public about Wyoming’s true place in history and to one day host classes for crafts that hearken back to the age before electronics. The Society is at a crucial point right now. The full support of the surrounding community is essential to the success of the cause.
Here are a few of the key points regarding the property’s history:
1834: One of the first 3 sawmills was built on the site, as well as the Jenison cabin and several other buildings
1835: From this mill, the first ever load of white pine lumber was shipped to Chicago that April
1840-1865: Known as “Dewey’s Station”, it is believed to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad
The foundation of the original sawmill is still visible today.
1855: The original mill was replaced by a steam saw mill capable of cutting 2-million board feet of lumber each year. The foundation of this mill and the dam is still visible today. Also visible is the original stone base for the bridge that was once a part of the original route of Byron Center Avenue.
1869: Dewey negotiated with The Lake Shore and Southern Michigan Railroad to have that line directed across the original estate in exchange for a station being built nearby, which was especially significant at the turn of the century.
The front porch in 1906.
1890: The home was discovered by an artist named George H. Ford, who soon turned it into a showcase and then used it as the main “lodge” of his artist colony. The famed Grand Rapids artist Mathias Alten frequented the colony while others such as photographer Fedora E.D. Brown and English artist Octar Copson commissioned homes of Ford’s design to be built adjacent to the property. He donned the colony with the name “Beckmaze” which meaning is interpreted to be “sweeter than the sweetest thing”. Current plans are to restore the home to its appearance under Ford’s ownership when it represented the best that Grand Rapids had to offer in the way of design and decoration.
Ford added architectural renovations that were state-of-the-art for the day.
1925: Dr. Llewelyn Wedgwood purchased the property and maintained its beauty until his death in 1949. After several years, it passed into the hands of the Braun family who spent three years restoring the property again.
The home in the winter of 1940.
1959: Wedgwood Christian Acres Home for Boys was organized by members of LaGrave Avenue Christian Reformed Church. Over the next 49 years the home underwent many necessary changes as the organization strove to continue its function as a residence for trouble youth.
2008: The property was sold into private ownership and suffered severely due to lack of maintenance. In the meantime, efforts had begun to bring attention to its historic value resulting in the formation of the Beckmaze Historical Society in 2010.
2011: The home was purchased by the society’s main benefactor andheld in trust until it was able to receive it as a donation.
Thankfully now in 2014, the title has been transferred to the Society but still it faces uncertainty as it must appeal to the Wyoming Planning Commission for special use of the property as a community center in order to move forward. This meeting is set to take place October 21st at 7 p.m. at Wyoming’s City Hall.
“If the planning commission refuses our request to be sanctioned a community center, we are done,” says Simon-Tibbe. “All the hard work of volunteers, board members and our benefactor will be a missed opportunity to preserve a piece of Wyoming’s history. We could lose it forever.”
This approval and the funds to carry out the preservation effort are sorely needed. The Society is hoping that the entire community will recognize the importance of this site and lend whatever support they can to the cause. To make a tax deductible contribution or to find out how you can help, contact the Beckmaze Historical Society at 616-258-8617 or find us on Facebook. Donations and inquiries can also be made by addressing correspondence to Beckmaze Historical Society at 2551 Oaklane S.W., Wyoming, Michigan, 49519.
Time to give the creek some love!
