Additional information
by William Hansen (Author)
A "FREE" 25 x 100 foot lot in beautiful Fruitvale Michigan to anyone attending the Land Exposition in Chicago, was the offer that thousands excepted for a better life. In reality, although the lots where there, the ones sown to the new owners were the same ones shown to someone else. Most Chicagoans who obtained a lot, never went to see it, or only went once. Thousands of the lots reverted back to the state for delinquent taxes, thus started the Fruitvale controversy that still appears from time to time in the news, even one hundred years later. The idea behind the land development by founder Harrison M. Parker, was for the owners of the lots and five and ten acre "Chickens and Cherries" farms, was to grow crops and raise chickens for the Chicago market. This idea soon fell apart, as the new lots owners only wanted free land, and not to become farmers. The Rochdale Inn, started early on as a place for new land owners to stay while the looked over their holdings, became the focal point of the development, both for vacationers from Chicago, and as a recreation spot for the locals. Over the ensuing years, Fruitvale was often in the news due to the activities of its founder and the many legal battles that he fought over his co-operative life style movement that entangled thousands of mid-westerners and brought in millions of dollars in questionable funds. It all came to a conclusion when Harrison Parker, while acting on his own behalf, lost his case before the U. S. Supreme Court. This book is a special 100th anniversary edition of the original book released in 1989 as a best seller. Some corrections have been made, along with the addition of color images and maps.
Author Biography
WIlliam P. Hansen, was born and raised in Muskegon, Michigan. After high school, he attended the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and graduated with honors in the Professional Photography program, and then went on and received his B.S. degree from Western Michigan University in Industrial Education and Graphic Arts. He has worked for the City of Muskegon Public School System as an audio visual illustrator, the Muskegon Chronicle as a press photographer, Quality Farm & Fleet as a darkroom tech and commercial photographer. He also taught for seven years in the Graphic Arts Dept at Muskegon Community College, and worked in commercial real estate. He is currently working for keh.com, the World's Largest Used Camera Dealer, in inventory management. With no formal training in architecture, he has designed and built four houses, and done the site plans for a bank, carwash, and a car dealership, all of which have been built. Additional titles by the author: The Lost City of Fruitvale Michigan - 1989 edition, volume 1 Japanese 35mm SLR Cameras Hansen-Peterson Woirol-Wellman Family History The Greenwood-Maynard Family Lines 1610-1983 The Official Book of 35mm SLR Cameras & Prices - 1st edition The Official Book of 35mm SLR Cameras & Prices - 2nd edition Hansen's Complete Illustrated Guide to Cameras, Volume 1 Hansen's Complete Illustrated Guide to Cameras, Volume 2 The Lost City of Fruitvale Michigan - 2007 edition, volume 1 Our Founding Photographers, A Look At The History of Photography In Muskegon County, Michigan, Volume 1 The Lost City of Fruitvale Michigan - 2011 100th anniversary edition, volume 1 The Lost City of Fruitvale Michigan - volume 2
