The first map to show and to name the lake was entitled "The State of Michigan and the Surrounding Country," published by John Farmer of Detroit in 1844.

On that date in 1871, homesteaders around the lake, who had objected to the practices of the saw mill owner at Portage in raising the lake level to power their saw mill, dug a channel through the narrow isthmus about a mile south of the natural outlet at Portage Creek.

Congress appropriated the first funds to develop the Portage Lake harbor of refuge in 1879[3] and work continued on and off for decades.

At that point, plans were laid to dredge the channel to a depth of 18 feet (5.5 m) and to extend the north and south piers.

[7] By 1914, steam ships of the Northern Michigan Transportation Company and the Pere Marquette Line regularly called at the Portage Point Inn, bringing passengers from Chicago and Milwaukee.

Organized by Murray Campbell, George Cartland, Walter Hardy, Lewis Hardy, Homer Hattendorf, John Heskett, Bill Smythe, the Tomlinsons, Leonard Vaughan, Warren Vaughan, and others, particularly their active sailing children.