Northern Michigan in Focus: The Wooden Nickel Tour

Looking for something fun to do?

There’s a tour going on in Houghton Lake that may pique your interest.

“I just hope that everybody can come through here and I can see new faces and get to know new people and spread the word,” said Ashley Kraase.

If you have a sense of curiosity, there’s a bunch of businesses in Houghton Lake that may help you with that in the form of r.

“There’s so many things in Houghton Lake to see and the Wooden Nickel Tour is just another thing to bring you in and get you involved in the community. Have a good time at our lake, we love it here,” explained Karen Servis.

Here’s the deal: show up to to sign up.

“This is the gateway. You have to come here to get your nickel bag. So the nickel bags are $5 and inside the nickel bag is a passport,” said Karen.

Then you travel around the lake collecting each unique wooden nickel.  We can’t show them here, because they’re a surprise. But you get to explore and go to places you may not think of, like .

Big Matt is a new business owner with maybe not the best business location.

“We sit so far back off the road at the Eagles Club, it’s hard to find us sometimes, so I thought this would be a great way to get people involved and find us,” said Big Matt.

Beth added, “And they don’t realize that we’re open to the public, and we are, so this is going to help.”

He’s got fantastic food. He hopes the tour will help people discover him.

“I also think that maybe with her doing this, it’s going to get places that are less traveled on the lake, traveled to, and more business to them,” explained Beth.

Back on the road, this time to Hibbs Party Store on the west side of Houghton Lake.

“We got the pizza, we got lasagna, we got soup and we got a whole bunch of liquor now,” said Ashley.

Tiffany Affholder added, “And we got rec gas, which hopefully will bring all the snowmobilers in this winter.”

Again, just a new business owner that would like people to simply give them a chance.

“I’m hoping I can see all the new faces I can see.  It’s nice to meet new people and everybody’s so friendly up here, I love it,” said Ashley.

And their pizza rocks! So if you like to find new places, meet new people and have a good time, The Wooden Nickel Tour may be for you.

“We have so many things for people to see, and this is a way to get people to come in and tour the city and have fun while they’re collecting their wooden nickels,” explained Karen.