The story goes that during the winter of 1924-25, Al Pack had a pipe dream one evening while visiting at the lake with two of his friends, Ed Johnson and Bill Watkins. The original idea was to build a fleet of fast runabouts, all exactly alike, and each equipped with the same basic engine. They thought they would have a good time and "pep things up" at the lake. The idea jelled and before the evening was over, each of them had agreed to sponsor a boat.

Al Pack had come to Montague in 1916, having bought a piece of property from Capt. Andrew Flagstead near the old Dowie estate. There, Pack built his own elaborate summer estate, the "Painted Post". Pack was interested in all aspects of boating. His own fleet of boats ranged from large sailing yachts, to cruisers, to speedboats and hydroplanes. He had been racing powerboats since 1910 and had been successful enough that he was known locally as the "Powerboat King of Chicago." Among his many enterprises, Pack had recently acquired the old Montague Iron Works, which specialized in producing marine engines. He also owned the Barteau Boat Works building in Montague. In addition to being personally quite wealthy, Pack had impressive connections, particularly with wealthy yachting and boating interests in Chicago.

The decision to invite the Mississippi Valley Power Boat Association to headline the 1925 water carnival was purely accidental. While making some purchases at a ship's chandler shop in Chicago, Al Pack happened to bump into an old friend, J. W. (Sack) Sackrider, who was the official starter for the MVPBA's regattas. Through Sackrider, Pack met with the association's board of directors and persuaded them to hold their Eighteenth Annual Regatta at White Lake. The local promoters were elated when the MVPBA accepted, because the Mississippi Valley Power Boat Association would attract members and participants from local powerboat associations throughout the country and would also ensure a big crowd of spectators for the biggest tourist weekend of the summer.

The races were scheduled for the Fourth of July Weekend, July 3, 4, and 5. Known as the Gold Cup Races, the Mississippi Valley Power Boat Association races appeared to be an answer to a tourist booster's dream. In the past, the MVPBA had always attracted large crowds to their events. But there was a catch. The sponsors, namely the White Lake Chamber of Commerce and the White Lake Power Boat Association, had to guarantee $7,000 in prize money for the event, and they also had to provide a viewing stand for the anticipated hordes of paying fans. The two went together. The thousands of anticipated powerboat racing fans would provide the revenue to pay for the prizes. The problem? White Lake had no such facility.

This was only a minor roadblock to a big-thinker like Al Pack. He formed a Grandstand committee, with himself as president and Clarence E. Pitkin as Vice President, They acquired a piece of property adjacent to the Barteau Boat Works and the Goodrich Dock in Montague. The site was at a point known as the "Narrows" of White Lake, just across from the Eagle-Ottawa Tannery in Whitehall, where the starting and finishing lines for the races were to be located. There they constructed a gigantic grandstand to be used for viewing the races. When completed the grandstand was 272 feet long, thirty tiers high, and was capable of seating over 5,600 people. Built entirely of wood, it cost about $60,000. For some reason, it was painted bright orange. The site also featured a twelve-foot wide wooden walkway that stretched the entire length of the grandstand, a large concession stand, a barbecue pit, toilet facilities and a "mushroom village of tents" that reminded one of a street fair.

Working on behalf of the White Lake Chamber of Commerce, Clarence E. Pitkin was in charge of publicizing the Gold Cup races and the other water carnival events. He raised $12,000. He and his publicity manager, Ed Skeels, editor of the Whitehall Forum, used it judiciously. They advertised the big affair in newspapers throughout the Mid-West and in all the major boating magazines.

Clearly the promoters wanted to make White Lake famous as a mecca for tourists. Advertisements emphasized that the White Lake area offered "...wonderful beaches for bathing; the fishing is of the best; the boating facilities are unequalled; there are rugged hills to climb, dense forests to explore; good golf links, ideal camp sites for boat and auto parties, in fact, White Lake has simply everything the recreationist could possibly require." Major highways throughout western Michigan were plastered with handsomely painted road signboards promoting the big event.

Al Pack continually invited visiting guests to his beautiful summer home for fun and relaxation. Everyone agreed that "the dances on the second of his large boat houses were among the high spots of the regatta." More than one account suggests that the liquor flowed freely at all of Al Pack's parties, despite the prohibition laws. Pack had rented one of the hotels at Maple Grove, where he provided free lodgings for the drivers and mechanics. They called it the "Sailor's Boarding House." Visiting dignitaries, such as the officials of the Mississippi Valley Power Boat Association, editors of the various boating magazines, and other famous guests such as circus man, John Ringling, stayed at the recently constructed Cherokee Hotel, just west of Montague.

Since the powerboat races would fill the daylight hours. Pack felt obliged to provide entertainment for the visitors all evening long. To fill this urgent need he brought in vaudeville performers from the Theatrical Colony in Muskegon, who had a yacht club of their own. They performed all three nights of the regatta using a removable stage that was constructed over the box seats at the front of the grandstand, near the waters' edge. Each night's performance ended with a gigantic fireworks display.

Al Pack was in his glory. Before the big event even started, he had challenged his old friend, Sheldon Dark, to a yacht race from Chicago to White Lake. Dark was the former Commodore of the Chicago Yacht Club. Dark's schooner, Rainbow, would race against Pack's larger, more powerful, eighty-five foot long ketch, Esperanza, captained by H. C. Grebe. The boats started from Chicago on Thursday afternoon, July second, and arrived at White Lake the following morning. The two tycoons had each bet $1,000 on the outcome of the race. Pack won.

Pack was so much the center of attention, that one of the magazine reporters even made up a little song about him.

It was Al Pack this and Al Pack that
And Al Pack all the day!
Oh, Al Pack packed a mighty pack
Till he packed them all away.

Al Pack certainly knew how to put on a show. On the Fourth of July, a fleet of at least sixty visiting yachts and motor cruisers assembled at Pack's boat house and then, in graceful line, paraded the length of the lake.

Pack had planned to enter several of his own boats in the various competitions. He entered Lightning, in the White Lake One-design races. Unfortunately, it sank when launched the first time. It ran respectably on the first day of the competition, but sank again during the second race on the second day. Pack also planned to compete with Miss White Lake, a 26 foot long runabout, powered by two engines capable of producing 500 horsepower. Finding no other comparable boat to race against, he took it out for a trial spin. He claimed it could surpass 70 miles per hour, but it averaged only 49.31 mph in the time trials. Pack had planned to enter one of his hydroplanes in the 610 class competition. He had at least two of them. The one named Hootch never made an appearance. The other, So Long, materialized, but failed to start the race. So Long was quite a novelty. Although only twelve feet long, it carried a motor rating in the 610c.i. class. The engine was so large that it took up the entire hull of the diminutive craft. The seats for the driver and engineer hung over the stern.

The Gold Cup Races attracted entries from throughout the country. Thirty-one were hydro-planes and forty were runabouts of various sizes and descriptions, including nearly two dozen outboards. Many of the boats had lengthy resumes' as champion competitors.

The two and one-half mile long course was laid out something like a huge bowling pin, with the head of the pin at the upper end of the lake, the neck of the pin at the narrows where the starting and finishing lines and the grandstand were located, and the larger end created by a rounded three-buoy turn-out in the wide portion of the lake. The hairpin turn at the upper end of the lake was made more difficult by a large patch of weeds in the middle of the turn. Drivers were forced to negotiate it at slow speeds. The outboards ran only a single lap around the course. The smaller runabouts and hydroplanes ran two laps. The large hydroplanes and runabouts typically ran four laps around the course, with multiple heats.

From a strictly local perspective, the most interesting race was the White Lake One-design competition.

While spectators generally failed to show much enthusiasm for most of the races, this was the one race in which the crowd stood on their seats and yelled themselves hoarse.

The White Lake One-design boats were all eighteen foot long runabouts, powered by identical 725 cubic inch aircraft engines that had been reconfigured as marine engines. The seven entries for the White Lake One-design race included Mr. Grand Rapids, (owned by L. F. Wallace); Miss Muskegon, (owned by Towner and Montgomery); Lightning (owned by Al Pack); Cyclone (owned by William Watkins); Puzzle (owned by Harvey Nelson); and Thunder (owned by Ed Johnson). Sneaky (owned by Charles Hackley Lee of Muskegon) did not start.

This exciting race, staged in three heats over three days, was colorfully recorded by Verra Thomas Griffith, reporter for Motor Boating magazine.

The Lightning flashed, the Thunder roared, the Cyclone blew, and the outcome was a Puzzle up to the very end! "

This by way of literal description of one of the most exciting events on the program - the 725 class runabout race, of which there was a heat run on each of the three days. For this part of the program Commodore Pack had arranged a field of what might be called local boats, since they were from the immediate vicinity. Constructed on exactly the same plan. Hacker designed and Barteau built and equipped with identical 225 H. P. power plants, they afforded an interesting field for speculation as to the result. The Trophy offered by the White Lake Association, was carried off by Puzzle, whose owner, H. Nelson of Montague, had decorated the sides of his speedster in crossword puzzle effect. Mr. Grand Rapids, owned by her named city resident, L. F. Wallace, placed second and Thunder, owned and driven by Ed Johnson of Montague, third. Lightning, Commodore Pack's own entry, sank in about sixty feet of Water on the course and at the time of the regatta's close, was still in her watery resting place.

The outboard motorboat races were also exciting, if only because several local boating enthusiasts competed, including Carl, Everett, and Lynn Gee from Whitehall, and Herbert R. Ray, a long time summer resident.

THE AFTERMATH OF THE GOLD CUP RACES

The Gold Cup races were a major success in promoting the tourist potential of White Lake. Visitors discovered that the surroundings were beautiful, the weather was fine, water conditions were nearly ideal, and the racing was exciting. Many of the local merchants were pleased with the business they did during the regatta. Most local restaurants and hotels were fully booked. This was particularly true of the Cherokee Lodge, the impressive three-story hotel near Montague that served as headquarters for race officials and other visiting dignitaries. Visitors, whether boat owners, drivers, mechanics or merely spectators, went away with a positive image of the White Lake area. The public relations bonanza that followed the Gold Cup races did much to enhance White Lake's standing as a resort community. Scenes of White Lake were featured in numerous boating magazines and even made the newsreels at the movies.