White Pine Village

Historic White Pine Village
Sign on admission building of entrance
Location	1687 S. Lakeshore Drive, Ludington, Michigan
Coordinates	43°55′39″N 86°26′45″W / 43.9276°N 86.4457°W / 43.9276; -86.4457Coordinates: 43°55′39″N 86°26′45″W / 43.9276°N 86.4457°W / 43.9276; -86.4457
Area	23 acres (9.3 ha)
Governing body	Mason County Historical Society
Location of Historic White Pine Village in Michigan

White Pine Village (also Historic White Pine Village) is an outdoor museum in Ludington, Michigan, containing nineteenth-century buildings and related historical items. The twenty-nine buildings in the village contain artifacts relating to pioneer lumbering, music, farming, shipping, sports, and businesses. The museum's centerpiece is an 1849 farmhouse.

White Pine Village is a self-guided outdoor museum located three miles south of Ludington in Mason County, Michigan. It is nationally recognized and is the largest historical village in west Michigan. It has twenty-nine preserved and refurbished historic buildings of Michigan on the village grounds,, with period-costumed guides, containing thousands of artifacts that are mostly from the nineteenth century. White Pine Village shows how the early settlers of Michigan in the 1800s lived.

The pioneer village attracts between about 15,000 and 18,000 tourists yearly. About 400 volunteers are involved with the outdoor museum. It has been listed as one of four unique tourist attractions in West Michigan by the Michigan Tourist Association and the Michigan Department of Transportation; the other three are the Shrine of the Pines in Baldwin, White River Light Museum in Whitehall, and the Music House in Acme. The museum is open as weather permits between April and October. It is located three miles south of Ludington.

In 1965, Mrs. Rose Hawley, a Michigan historian, came up with the idea for a pioneer-type, history, outdoor museum. The county clerk Jerome Jorissen had bought a property that included an old farmhouse. He gave this property to the Mason County Historical Society for preservation. Jorissen did much of the initial museum layout and oversaw its general construction. Hawley was the founder and Jorissen was the co-founder of the new museum.

The original Pioneer Village outdoor museum of twelve buildings on twenty-three acres (9.3 ha) opened in 1976 on the weekend of the Fourth of July to thousands of local residents. The first buildings to be reconstructed were the first Mason County Courthouse, Marchido School, Pere Marquette Townhall, Trapper's Cabin (Mason County's first post office), General Store, Fire Barn, Abe Nelson Blacksmith Shop, Abe Nelson Lumbering Museum, The Livery exhibit building, the future Maritime Museum, the Village Chapel, and a barn.