Community
Lake Orion History
Lake Orion is a village in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 2,973 at the 2010 census. "Lake Orion" is often used to describe both the village and the much larger Orion Township, [citation needed] of which the village is a part.
Lake Orion originated as a resort town and over time has incorporated elements of a bedroom community.
Judah Church and Moses (or Samuel) Munson were among the first settlers. Munson, who arrived in 1824, built a sawmill in 1825, and planted the first orchard. Jesse Decker arrived from upstate New York with his wife, Mary, in 1825. Decker proved to be energetic and became "everything to everybody", so that the place soon became known as "Decker's Settlement", and the town was called "Canandaigua", after Canandaigua, New York, where the settlers originated. The settlement grew into a bustling commercial center with a sawmill, tavern, post office, general store, blacksmith shop, school and cemetery. In 1828, a power dam was built uniting several small lakes and forming the mile wide Lake Canandaigua, just west of the village.
Amusement Park
Lake Orion as a resort and amusement destination in the early 20th century. Lake Orion was an amusement destination amongst the residents of Metro Detroit in the first half of the 20th century. The addition of the Michigan Central Railroad track in 1872 had set the stage for Lake Orion as a major summertime resort for those travelling on the line, especially between Detroit and Flint. In 1874, several prominent citizens formed the Orion Park Association to capitalize on the growing number of travelers to the area. They developed a park on the shore of the lake (now Green's Park) near the train depot, and operated a steam-powered boat for lake excursions and delivery to Park Island. Over time, the Park Island Amusement Park grew to include a penny arcade, carousel, souvenir booths, refreshment booths, lunch stands, dining rooms, dance halls, and a wooden roller coaster named "The Thriller". The swimming beach located on the north side of Park Island had both a men's and ladies' bathhouse, a waterslide, and numerous diving boards, with the highest being 42 feet above water. Lake Orion was stocked annually with bass, pickerel, and pike, and fishing tournaments and contests were held seasonally. Several double-deck boats, including the “City of Orion,” offered lake excursions replete with bands and a dance floor on the upper deck. At night, Park Island was illuminated by strings of thousands of lights.
At one time a premier destination amongst vacationers, the park suffered through the Great Depression and several fires, gradually losing business before closing permanently in 1955. The park was under the ownership of the Detroit Edison Company (via purchase of a subsidiary, the Orion Power and Light company) from 1912 until closure. The island and park property was later purchased by a private real estate developer who built homes on the island in the 1960s.
In many brochures and newspaper advertisements in the 1910s and 1920s, Lake Orion was advertised to potential travelers as the "Venice of the Middle West", "Paris of Detroit", and "Lake Orion, the One Best Resort".