After warmer than usual temperatures the past few winters, Tip-up Town is back to full capacity in Houghton Lake this weekend.
“We are so excited! We’re grateful for the snow and the cold weather,” said Houghton Lake executive director Jay Jacobs. “We’ve got plenty of ice now on the lake and people are out their ice fishing, snowmobiling or just having a ball. That’s a big playground out there and we’re enjoying it now.”
The excitement for the 75th Tip-Up town winter festival is palpable.
Last year’s warmer weather put a damper on the event -- especially the ice fishing activities.
While some people still went fishing, Lyman’s on the Lake store owner didn’t promote it due to a responsibility he felt to keep tourists safe.
“Bad...It was terrible! I mean, that was absolutely a disaster of a year,” said Kurt Beachnau. “There was ice that you could fish on, the locals were fishing on it, but because we have so many amateur fishermen when we announce that people are fishing, we really didn’t announce that people were out there because we were afraid somebody would come up and might get hurt,”
But that’s not the case this year.
The weather is right -- and longtime Tip-Up Towners are ready to go.
“I just love fishing, and I love all the activities and all the snowmobile races, the polar dip and everything they got going,” said veteran fisherman Bruce Bosch. “During the fish contest we always try to get something on the board.”
According to Houghton Lake chamber of commerce executive director -- tip up town festivities draw roughly 8,000 to 10,000 people to their area -- and that drives economic dollars to their local businesses.
“For Roscommon County we depend on tourism so it’s a big boost to our economy to have this event,” said Jay Jacobs.
“Not only do they spend money at the event, but they come here and spend money at Lyman’s, they’ll spend money at the gas station, the restaurants, the hotels are full now.”
Neighboring stores have had to up the ante on supply orders for festival goers.
" We know we got to have things like ice cleats for your shoes, in a normal weak we go through six of them, this week we go through 100, it’s that big of a difference."
Tip-Up Town veteran fisherman Bruse Bosch has one final thing to say.
“Go Lions!