Blendon Landing

In the mid-nineteenth century a site called Blendon Landing was located in this vicinity on the Grand River. Blendon was organized in 1854 and named for the Blendon Lumber Company. A logging train hauled timber seven miles from the pine forest to the landing for shipping. White pine and hardwoods were transported from here and used to manufacture ships, railroad cars, and guns. Blendon’s sawmill, logging operations, and shipyard sustained a community of about two hundred people in the early 1860s. The sawmill burned in 1864 and by 1870 the railroad was abandoned. By 1912 Blendon was deserted. In 1965 Grand Valley State College professor Richard E. Flanders began excavating the Blendon Landing site as part of the university’s archaeology program. Blendon Landing is owned by the Grand Valley State University Club.