West Michigan Chapter goes North

Written by Scott van Tamelen

Photos by Dennis Carol and Scott van Tamelen

When you live in Michigan getting away for the weekend often entails going “Up North,” what exactly equates to “up north” depends upon where you live in the State. For some it’s the Upper Peninsula, for those in the Detroit area it’s Saginaw (I joke), for the West Michigan Pontiac Chapter it often means the greater Grand Traverse area.

Every spring the West Michigan Pontiac Club celebrates surviving another winter season by arranging a Spring Dust-Off Cruise. As the weather starts to warm, many of us are anxious to get our cars out from the long winter slumber and go cruising together. This year, I volunteered to make the arrangements for the annual chapter event. Already in October of 2023 we had decided our destination would the picturesque area of Traverse City, Michigan; home of the National Cherry Festival and Hagerty Classic Car Insurance.

On Saturday May 5th nearly 33 WMPOCI members and 1 Widetracker’s member departed from Nunica, Michigan and headed “up north”. The day started out with a slight drizzle but as we made our way north the fog lifted, the skies broke, and nature provided us with one of the most spectacular weekends of the spring season. I’m sure it was quite a sight seeing the caravan of nearly 20 cars make its way along the highway and back roads. People may have thought we were a primarily a Grand Prix club since we had several generations represented in the group, but we also had a few Lemans, a Firebird, a Catalina, a G6 and a couple non-Pontiac cars mixed in with us.

North of Manistee, Michigan our drive took us on one of the most beautiful roadways in all the country, State highway M-22. In its entirety M-22 is 117 miles in length and passes through the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. If you ever find yourself in the area, we highly recommend you plan a day to drive this very scenic route. I’ve heard it said that M-22 is a lifestyle, it truly is. There are several small, quaint, lakeside towns along the route that make you feel like you stepped back in time; the people are friendly and welcoming, and the entire area feels like a scene right out of a Hallmark TV show. M-22 also offers peeks of the Lake Michigan shoreline and passes around numerous crystal-blue inland lakes. Along the way you’ll be awed by the scenery this roadway offers as it meanders over hills, around curves, through tree covered canopies and back out again into stretches of orchards & fields.

Our first stop was in Frankfort, Michigan, with a population of only 1252 people Frankfort is not large by most standards, but it is the largest town on the M-22 route. It is also home to the largest privately held collection of Hurst/Oldsmobile vehicles in all of Michigan, maybe the entire country. Hale Auto Museum is tucked away in a little corner of town and boast over 50 vehicles in its collection. Most of the collection is made up of Hurst/Oldsmobiles, including George Hurst’s personal 1969 H/O car, along with several Indy Pace Cars. Before we headed to the museum though we grabbed lunch together at the local A&W restaurant. This drive-in restaurant was a flashback to earlier times, and even though we chose to sit inside it was still a hit and gave us an opportunity to reunite while we enjoyed a meal together.

No cruise “Up North” would be complete without a pleasant, slow-paced drive around one of the many lakes in the area. So, following our tour of the museum, we found a backroad again that took us around beautiful Crystal Lake. From there we headed towards Traverse City where club member, Erik Jensen, had arranged for us to tour the private automotive collection of Hagerty.

When we arrived at the Hagerty Collection we were cheerfully greeted by one of their employees who gave the us history of Hagerty Insurance, and then the backstory of how a few of the cars came to be in the collection. Afterwards we were free to look around at the unique vehicles on display and ask any questions we may have. If you follow Hagerty you might recognize some of the cars pictured as being from their advertisements.

The next morning, after spending the night at a lakeside hotel, we made a short drive to Hammer & Dolly Restoration shop where owner Adam Hammer shared with us the history of himself and his shop. Being a graduate of McPherson College (known for their renowned automotive restoration program) Adam made his way around the country working with and studying under some of the best automotive craftsman in the industry. He later settled in Traverse City and opened his shop. Over the course of the past several years they have become the premiere restoration shop in Northwest Michigan. They have restored vehicles for some very influential people, including a couple high-end cars that were on display at the Hagerty Collection. Our group was treated to a behind-the-scenes look at exactly what he, his shop manager Brad and the 10 other employees do on a daily basis.

Overall, we had one of the best attended dust-offs ever, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Hopefully, it’s a sign of the kind of fun our chapter will continue to experience as another car season begins here in the Great Lakes area.