I am an environmental analyst with the State of Michigan in the Department of Environmental Quality. My Wife is a teacher, mother, homemaker, and my best buddy. We have 4 adult children, 3 who live in Michigan and 1 who lives in Califorina. We all love the lake and spend as much of our time up there as possible.

Joan Cook purchased this house in 1958

Ownership of our lake home was a decision that was made for me. My family purchased our property when I was 18 months old. From that time until I graduated from high school I spent my summers and many spring and fall weekends at Higgins Lake. As soon as school was out mom and I headed north. Dad would join us on the weekends. Over the many years I found joy in picking the wild blueberries that bloomed in front of the cottage, (and in the swampy areas back on the state land behind our property (there is nothing that can beat pancakes made with just picked blueberries. I enjoyed lazy days of swimming, boating, fishing, sunning and exploring on the state owned woods behind our lot. The back roads were available for deer and other fauna watching. We have seen deer in our back yard and wild turkeys on the beach. While ducks and herons swim in the lake and eagle soar air over head. The experience has had a lot to do with my selection of a career in environmental protection. I became the sole owner when my parents passed away. We recently completed many renovations and repairs to make S’Hummer Haven an even more pleasant to visit and relax!

One of the main benefits of my home is that the area around it is still fairly undeveloped. Over the 58 years I have been coming north I have seen many of the areas around both Higgins and Houghton Lakes build up and become more “down state”, our area is still pretty much as it was when we first started coming up. Our place is on a private road, on which there has been no new construction in over 30 years. Ownership of the other places on our road has not changed in 20 years. The lot immediately to the south of us is undeveloped. Our sandy beach is clean. Our side of the lake deepens gradually. An adult can walk out 100 yards and still have their head above water. Our lake water is crystal clear, and the lake bottom in front is sand.