[1] Thomas E. Douglas was born and educated in Canada, and moved the Michigan to come to work as a bookkeeper in his uncle's lumber mill in Saginaw.

Riding the wave of the lumber boom, in 1898 Douglas built a sawmill and general store in what was then the small logging community of Lovells.

In 1916, as the lumbering era was winding down, he constructed the Douglas House and established the North Branch Outing Club to draw tourists to the area.

With the rise in the usage of the automobile, Douglas targeted wealthy travelers as club members, and drew members from the new Detroit automobile aristocracy such as Henry Ford and his son Edsel, John and Horace Dodge, and Charles Nash.

In 1996, the Douglas House reopened as a sporting lodge known as "North Branch Outing Club.