By Mary Drew at Pasty Central (Mdrew) on Tuesday, August 3, 2021 - 11:45 pm:
We take a hike up Hammel Creek with Brad DeForge, to check out the Douglass Houghton Falls or is it the Houghton Douglass Falls? It’s known as both, by locals and online webpages, too. But whatever the real name, it was Brad’s first hike to Michigan’s tallest waterfall, after living nearby it for a number of years and he declared it a “beautiful hike”. You can see from his photos that there isn’t much water flowing over the 110 foot drop and that’s due to not having had much rain in the area for weeks upon weeks.
The area was privately owned for many years and was closed for a number of them, due to the liability of people falling, but in 2018 the Michigan Department of Natural Resources purchased it with the plans to make it public again as a Veteran’s Memorial, with safety features in place. I hadn’t heard anything more being done toward that goal, but found the following information posted on a Waterfalls of the Keweenaw webpage back in June of this year. So unofficially, here’s the scoop...
Post from Eric – June 2021: Recently I encountered a couple of State of Michigan (DNR?) people at this waterfall who were checking out the site briefly, with marked-up photographs and other materials. After the land was acquired there was at least one factor other than Covid that slowed planning, but I can't remember what they said that factor was. Anyway, planning activities have resumed in earnest, thanks especially to funds from the "Trust Fund Application." The barriers put up by the previous owner have been removed, the only apparent "construction." The State owns the property along both sides of the creek. Expect the site to be similar to the existing waterfall Scenic Sites, with boardwalks, fencing and railings, and one or more viewing decks. The unofficial estimated opening is 2023, 2024.
Michigan Waterfalls posted a video of the falls from a few years ago when the water was cascading over a bit more than this year. Turn up your speakers, so you can get the full effect of the sights and sounds!
