Fruitport

History

Fruitport was founded by Edward L. Craw in 1868, who platted and named it "Crawville". It was renamed "Fruitport" a year later when the Pere Marquette Railroad built a station there, as the town was in the middle of a fertile fruit-growing area and also a port. It incorporated as a village in 1891. In an election on November 8, 2005, 306 residents voted unsuccessfully to dissolve the village municipal corporation, while 155 voted no, short of the two-thirds majority (308 votes) needed to dissolve the village. This was the fourth time since 1979 that a proposal to dissolve the village was on the ballot for an election. In 1990, a proposal to disincorporate was defeated by a 2 to 1 margin while a proposal in 1998 failed by 41 votes.

Geography

The village is in southern Muskegon County, in the southern part of Fruitport Charter Township. It is bordered to the south by Ottawa County. The city of Muskegon is to the northwest, while Grand Haven is to the southwest. Fruitport sits at the upstream end of Spring Lake, connected to Lake Michigan via the Grand River at Grand Haven. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , of which are land and , or 10.8%, are water.

Most-observed species

• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  15,358
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  15,243
• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  13,507
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  13,322
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  12,823
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  12,645
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  12,468
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  12,312