Reeds Lake is a fresh-water lake in the city of East Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States.
Reeds Lake is visible from John Collins Park. Named for John A. Collins, EGR mayor from 1933 to 1956, this park provides handicap-accessible trails, observation overlooks, a fishing deck, gardens, and a view of Reeds Lake. A public boat launch is open during daylight hours.
The Reeds Lake Triathlon takes place in early September, and the Reeds Lake Run is typically in late June. A footpath around the lake is 4.2 miles (6.8 km) long.
Reeds Lake is also the home of the Grand Rapids Yacht Club, which sits on the west shore of the lake, between Collins Park and the East Grand Rapids public library.
Ramona Park is the most-remembered feature of the bygone days of East Grand Rapids and Reeds Lake. The amusement park, owned and operated by the Grand Rapids Street Railway Company, was a destination spot for thousands of families between 1897 and 1955. A passenger steamer by the name of Ramona was used to ferry passengers around the lake to various destinations.
The Point Paulo resort was also located along the shores of Reeds Lake in the early 1900s. Several stars of Vaudeville called Reeds Lake and the Ramona Theatre (which was part of Ramona Park) their favorite stop on the theatre circuit.
Reeds lake is currently circled by a number of buildings including; the municipal buildings, the East Grand Rapids Middle School, the restaurant Roses, the Grand Rapids Yacht Club, numerous marinas, and many houses.
Famous quotes containing the words reeds and/or lake:
“What was he doing, the great god Pan,
Down in the reeds by the river?
Spreading ruin and scattering ban,
Splashing and paddling with hoofs of a goat,
And breaking the golden lilies afloat
With the dragon-fly on the river.”
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
“What a wilderness walk for a man to take alone! None of your half-mile swamps, none of your mile-wide woods merely, as on the skirts of our towns, without hotels, only a dark mountain or a lake for guide-board and station, over ground much of it impassable in summer!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)