For Manistee, reinventing itself is nothing new.
From the time the first European settlers moved into the area in the 1820s, the city has consistently found new ways to make a living.
Now, in its latest permutation, Manistee is poised to become Hollywood Midwest. Or maybe Hollywood North Woods, or Hollywood Northwest Lower Peninsula. Whatever it's called, Manistee is now in the movie business.
Last summer, friends Harold Cronk and Matthew Tailford were traveling western Michigan looking for someplace to make movies. In Manistee, they found much of what they were looking for -- beaches, sand dunes, farm country, million-dollar homes, a Victorian-era downtown, a marina and several buildings large enough to be transformed into seven sound stages. Preproduction offices for producers and others are nearby.
According to the Associated Press, larger production studios are being planned in Pontiac and Allen Park, but Cronk and Tailford's 10 West -- named after the east-west highway just south of town -- is the first.
The pair, who the AP said met as elementary art teachers in Reed City, have invested close to $3 million; so far, they have five full-time employees.
The two said they want to offer an affordable, hassle-free and enjoyable experience that will appeal to low-budget productions.
"We're not going after the $40 million film," Tailford said. "We're not competing with Detroit. We're here to supplement them."
While the movie business may be new for Manistee, being a chameleon isn't.
Every few decades since a Jesuit mission house was built there in the 1820s and European settlers moved in to stay, the city has recast itself.
In its earliest days it was one of the busiest commercial fishing ports on the Great Lakes. In 1841, the first lumber mill was built. In 1854, a canal was dug to create a deepwater port. In 1879, the first salt well was dug. By 1885, there were 40 sawmills; by the late 1880s, 30 shingle mills, making the city the biggest shingle maker in the world.
On Oct. 8, 1871, most of the city burned down -- the same day as the great Peshtigo Fire in Wisconsin, the Great Chicago Fire and fires in Port Huron and Holland, Mich. It rebuilt. In 1934, the Manistee National Forest was established and the federal government planted some 25 million trees.
Today, the city is as well known for its extensive tourism and charter fishing industries -- with an estimated 40 charter businesses and tourism based on its "Victorian Port City" theme -- but still has salt-related factories and other industry.
Now, Michigan's 18-month-old film tax credit program, said to be the most generous in the nation, may help the city turn yet another new page.
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