The Deadstream Swamp

Houghton Lake isn't the only lake in the region, but it is the largest. Other lakes in the area include nearby Higgins Lake (called by locals "the 6th most beautiful lake in the world"), and Lake St. Helen. Of course, there are even more lakes around, and rivers connecting them, but that is an awful lot of fresh water.

The Deadstream Swamp is where some of that water goes. Coming in at over 11,000 acres, it is one of the largest white cedar swamps in the country. (White Cedar is a popular wood, and the number of such swamps is dwindling!) If you're a fan of the swamp the area is particularly beautiful; large parts of it are completely out of reach of vehicles, meaning they are completely unspoiled. If a good, hard hike is what you're after, then come to the Houghton Lake area! We have trails through pristine, tangled deciduous forests, and a foreboding wetlands preserve.

What if I don't want to trapse through the woods?

While you would not regret a trip through the harsh wilderness, the state has set up two areas of interest to those who would love to have a close up encounter with nature, but also enjoy driving cars; the Reedsburg Dam (Dead Stream Flooding) and the Houghton Lake Flats.

The Reedsburg Dam is the controlled flooding of a large part of the Deadstream Swamp. From there you can take canoes (No motors allowed in the Deadstream!) and explore thousands of acres of beauty. This is a favorite swimming area for locals (and the tourists who know), because of the surroundings, the depth of the water (much deeper than Houghton Lake, and no mucky bottom to deal with), and the solace. The traffic up and down Houghton Lake's main road, while certainly not comparable to Los Angeles or any of the other big cities, can be exhausting. (Not to mention that it's fun to jump off the thing!)

The Houghton Lake Flats is a moderately sized wetland off the west end of Houghton Lake, running right through US-127. The water levels that one currently sees while travelling through the area were created in the 1950s, in a deal with the Department of Transportation. The levels are controlled with pumps, and this particular managed wetland has a convenient observation deck off of Old 27.

Why the Swamp?

At about this point in the page, some people are probably wondering what the big deal about a swamp is - it's cold, it's mucky, yucky, and in the summer the mosquitoes come out in droves. These things are all true, however, the animals that flock there completely make up for it. The first time you come up and experience the silence you'll understand why I can go on about it; it's not uncommon to see a deer and bear tracks, and a cacophony of birds. Hawks circling overhead, heron making their nests above the swamp, flocks of geese coming in for landings, staying and terrorizing an area for a matter of a few days and leaving again as if nothing happened. There's even an entire species that breeds nowhere else outside of the area; the Kirtland warbler.

My family moved from a subdivision in the main part of Houghton Lake to a house in the middle of the forest, on the outskirts of the swamp, when I was a kid. At the time I was frustratingly far from my friends, but I began to appreciate the area after I moved into "the big city" for college. Rolling over hills, where all you can see for miles is forest, a neverending series of trees, like a beautiful painting around every curve.