As you follow the curve of Lake Michigan east from Chicago, past the smokestacks of Indiana, toward the border of Michigan, the shoreline changes. The midwestern plain gives way to sensuous sweeps of sand. These are the dunes, a fragile world held fast by grass and scrub against the winds that beat from the west.
Just south of town, in governmentally distinct New Buffalo Township, you might come across 65 acres of pristine duneland that used to be one of Harbor Country’s best-kept secrets–Forest Beach Camp and Conference Center. The YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago bought two-thirds of this land back in 1918 and added the rest in 1964; aside from some camp buildings the property had been left virtually untouched. Forest Beach’s towering dunes, natural fern grotto, and half mile of beaches were cherished by the children, working women, and disadvantaged families–most of them from inner-city Chicago–who came camping in the summer. Local schools used the camp for nature walks and art classes. Many second-home owners from Chicago didn’t know Forest Beach existed.
May 29, 1989. Three months have passed since the YWCA sold the Forest Beach Camp property to R. Steven Lutterbach, a Michigan City, Indiana, businessman, for $2,833,330.
Pamela Bruce says now, “Mrs. Hoover never spoke with me and I never saw anything. . . . It sounds like if indeed she made this proposal, we’ll say that somehow it was lost in the translation or lost in communication.”
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But Priscilla Florence, chairman of the Forest Beach Camp Committee (Mrs. Hoover once held the same post), told the board that if the Y kept the camp it would have to spend some $300,000 on repairs (apart from Hoover Hall). And two Saint Joseph, Michigan, realtors invited to the meeting said that this was as good a time to sell as any.
In the months ahead, other estate brokers, appraisers, developers, and property owners would denounce this cautious forecast as standing reality on its ear. The 1986 appraisal was completed during a period of high lake levels and significant beach erosion. In 1988 lake levels dropped, and since then lakefront property values have skyrocketed.
One of the first parties to express an interest in buying Forest Beach was New Buffalo Township, which wanted the camp for a public park and beach. Local attorney Larry Frankle represented the township pro bono in negotiations with the YWCA, and he’s now one of the most vocal critics of the Y and its brokers, Brian Tunnell and David Fister.
