Fruitport, MI

Fruitport has a name that tells you how the place made its early living. Edward L. Craw founded the settlement in the 1860s and first called it Crawville; by 1869 it had become Fruitport, a nod to the fruit farms around Spring Lake and the village’s role as a lake port. Growers shipped harvest by boat, while an interurban railroad later carried passengers through town and a roundhouse stood on Park Street. Today the village sits at the upstream end of Spring Lake, with Pomona Park and the waterfront close to the center. The local shorthand is fruit, lake, and rail—three pieces behind the name of this Muskegon County village.