Good morning, lakeshore. Saturday afternoon, pilots at Grand Haven Memorial Airpark will park their planes in a big circle on the apron and hand out candy to trick-or-treaters. The Grand Haven Aviation Association runs it, and the state’s aviation events calendar says to expect around 8,000 people between 2 and 4 PM. Your kid might get a Snickers from someone who flew in that morning. Get there early and bring the big bucket.
In today’s Lowdown:
The farmers market wants to go year-round
Grand Haven crowns its skeletons Saturday
158 bowling balls under one back porch
Let’s get into it.
- Sam Johnson, The Lakeshore Lowdown
Sponsored by Pure M Café:
Pure M Café is open daily, 7 AM to 2 PM, tucked on the Maranatha campus off Lake Harbor Road. Whether you’re grabbing coffee on the go or looking for a quiet spot to sit and chat, it’s a solid stop, and the kids’ corner means the little ones can come along too. Take a few minutes to browse their bookstore while you’re there. Visit Pure M Café
BARN AGAIN
The farmers market wants to go year-round 🥕
The Muskegon Farmers Market has been in its downtown barn on Western Ave for about a decade. It’s the second-largest market in Michigan, and the city wants it busy in February too. This spring the state sent $481,267 to help make that happen.
The grant from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development covers a bigger Kitchen 242, the market’s incubator kitchen where food startups rent commercial space without signing a lease. It also pays toward an expanded indoor market and gathering space in the barn. The rest has to come from a community campaign called Growing Together.
The ideas on the table go well past more stalls. The campaign floats a deli inside the barn and even a synthetic ice rink for the cold months. More restrooms are on the list too, and anyone who’s waited in that line on a summer Saturday will vote yes.
Saturday morning you can see the renderings and tell the city what you’d actually use. Grab your produce first, since the market runs 8 AM to 2 PM.
📍 Muskegon Farmers Market (Indoor Barn), 242 W Western Ave
🗓️ Sat, Oct 24, 10 AM to noon
🎟️ Free | Growing Together
🎉 Weekend Preview
Upper 60s on the last weekend of October. Saturday’s the pick.
🎈 = family-friendly
All weekend
🎈🌾 Harvest Hay Bale Trail – Downtown Muskegon. Voting runs through Oct 31.
Friday
💀 Bones About Town voting closes – Noon. See Shore Things.
🎭 Company – The Beardsley, 7:30 PM. Tickets
🎤 Colton Dixon x Micah Tyler – The Frauenthal, 7 PM. Tickets
🎸 Rock Variety Show – Unruly Brewing, $5.
🏈 Reeths-Puffer at Whitehall – First meeting since 1984. See Local Sports.
⚽ North Muskegon vs. Western Michigan Christian – Division 4 district final, 6 PM at WMC.
Saturday
🎈🥕 Muskegon Farmers Market – 8 AM to 2 PM.
🎈🥕 Farmers market open house – 10 AM to noon. Details up top.
🎈🎃 Grand Haven Fall Fest – Downtown and Centertown, 9:30 AM to 1 PM, trick-or-treating 10:30 to noon. The skeleton winners get revealed. Details
🎈👻 Halloween Party – North Muskegon branch library, 11 AM to 1 PM. Crafts, games, cider and donuts, free. Info
🎈✈️ Trunk or Treat with Airplanes – Grand Haven Memorial Airpark, 16446 Comstock St, 2 to 4 PM. Details up top.
🎭 Company – Final show, 3 PM matinee.
🧺 Western Market – Downtown Muskegon, 10 AM to 4 PM. It’s Saturdays only in October, and the season wraps Oct 31.
⚽ Whitehall vs. Hart – Division 3 district final, 10 AM at Oakridge.
Sunday
🗳️ Early voting – Muskegon City Hall, 10 AM to 6 PM.
Coming up
🎃 Shoreline Spooktacular Trunk or Treat – Hackley Park, Tue, Oct 27, 5 to 7 PM.
🎺 Dumpstaphunk – The Frauenthal, Thu, Oct 29.
🤠 Gary Allan – The Frauenthal, Fri, Oct 30.
🍸 Martini Lounge Showcase – Unruly, Fri, Oct 30, $5.
☘️ Midnight in Ireland – Unruly, Sat, Oct 31. Irish acts from around noon to 7:30 PM, then ZIP City at 8:30 PM.
🌊 Shore Things
🗳️ Ballot Box Weekend – Muskegon City Hall is closed today, but early in-person voting opens there Saturday from 8 AM to 4 PM and Sunday from 10 AM to 6 PM. Election Day is Nov. 3.
💀 Last Call, Bones – Voting in Bones About Town closes at noon today. More than 150 decorated skeletons are still up around downtown and Centertown Grand Haven, and Saturday’s Fall Fest is your last look before they come down.
🚲 Back on Track, Eventually – Part of the North Bank Trail in Spring Lake Township collapsed in May over a regional sewer line. The township board has approved the bid for the final reconstruction phase, which is expected to wrap up next spring. Check the township’s page for the current detour between 148th Ave and N Fruitport Road.
🏈 Local Sports
It’s the final Friday of the regular season. Muskegon (4-4) makes the 340-mile round trip to No. 3 Clarkston (7-1). LSJ’s Tom Kendra says a win puts the Big Reds in the playoffs, and they could still sneak in with a loss. Mona Shores (7-1) heads to winless River Rouge. Up north, Reeths-Puffer (3-5) visits Whitehall (2-6) for the first time since both played in the Seaway Conference in 1984, and the Rockets lead the all-time series 19-6. Playoff pairings drop Sunday night.
Friday, Oct 23 (Kickoff at 7PM):
Mona Shores at River Rouge
Muskegon at Clarkston
Reeths-Puffer at Whitehall
Grand Haven at Grandville
Zeeland West at Spring Lake
NorthPointe Christian at Fruitport
Oakridge at North Muskegon
Montague at Ravenna
Orchard View at Shelby
Muskegon Catholic Central at Jonesville
Holton at Muskegon Heights
Around the county
⚽ District Champs – Grand Haven beat Mona Shores 1-0 Tuesday, then took down West Ottawa 2-1 Thursday at Grandville for the Division 1 district title.
⚽ County vs. County – The Division 4 final is all Muskegon County. North Muskegon edged Ravenna 2-1 and Western Michigan Christian (16-1-3) rolled past Lakeview 8-0, and they meet tonight at 6 PM at WMC. Saturday at 10 AM, Whitehall plays Hart for the D3 title at Oakridge after beating Montague 2-0. The Vikings haven’t won a district since 2015.
🏐 A Thousand Setups – North Muskegon’s Maci Lathrop hit 1,000 career assists Tuesday in a sweep of Shelby. The Norse finished the WMC Rivers regular season 6-0.
🏒 Brick Wall – Lumberjacks goalie Oscar Westman, from Stockholm, was named USHL Goalie of the Week. The Jacks are in Lincoln this weekend for two games against the Stars.
☀️ Weather Report
Friday 68 🌡️ 44 | ☀️ | 0% | 💨 SE 10-15 kt, S 5-10 kt by afternoon
Saturday 68 🌡️ 44 | 🌤️ | 10% | 💨 S 10-15 kt
Sunday 67 🌡️ 53 | ⛅ | 10% | 💨 S 10-20 kt
🌊 Waves 1 ft or less Friday, 1 to 3 ft Saturday, 2 to 4 ft Sunday | 💧 Water low 50s
The verdict: Friday’s the flat-water day if you want a pier walk. A south wind kicks the lake up by Sunday, and highs slide into the 50s early next week.
🎵 Live Music Picks
Rake has four bands on the bill both nights, and Kirby House takes the late shift in Grand Haven.
Friday, Oct 23
Frauenthal | Colton Dixon x Micah Tyler | 7 PM
Rake Beer Project | Dog Skull, Potionseller, Low Phase, RTNR | 8 PM, $10
Kirby House | Jake Stevens | 9 PM-12:30 AM
Saturday, Oct 24
Rake Beer Project | Not Made For Angels, Swandrive, No Skull, Inolonger | 8 PM, $10
Kirby House | Sophia McIntosh & The Sages | 9 PM-12:30 AM
SPARE PARTS
🌟Only in Muskegon and Grand Haven
In 2021, David Olson started tearing out the concrete back steps of his Norton Shores house to chase down a leak and found a bowling ball buried in the sand. By the time he was done, he’d pulled out 158 of them. Brunswick dated them to the 1950s, and former workers reached out to tell him that scrap balls from the Muskegon plant used to go home as fill instead of gravel. That plant opened in 1906, grew past a million square feet by the 1940s, and made bowling balls and pins for a century until production moved to Mexico and it closed in 2006. Olson gave some of the balls to the Muskegon Heritage Museum, and he’s pretty sure there are more under his patio.
✅ Lowdown Essentials
📸 Follow us on Instagram @TheLakeshoreLowdown
That’s it for this issue.
Thanks for reading. If you’re heading to the airport Saturday, park once and walk. Eight thousand people in two hours is a lot of candy traffic. See you Tuesday.
