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Dan D. Raymond opened the Raymond Motor & Cycle Company on Ottawa Street in Muskegon. The Muskegon Motorcycle Club was founded in this building in 1920 and founded the Muskegon Motorcycle Hill Climb out of the building in 1923, both the club and hill climb are still going strong today. Jim Snell then brought the first licensed Harley Davidson dealership to Muskegon in 1961 and ran it out of the building until the very large addition was added in the early ‘90’s. |
Raymond organized the Muskegon Motorcycle Club in 1920 and in 1921 leased a nearby sand dune, Mount Garfield, for a motorcycle hillclimb.
The Muskegon Motorcycle Club purchased the forty-acre site that included Mount Garfield in 1923, the same year that over 3,000 spectators attended the climb. The club also purchased a farmhouse, which was converted into a clubhouse, and improved the hill with wooden steps, an observation tower, and clay surfacing.
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The Muskegon Motorcycle Club received the National Championship Hill Climb award from the American Motorcycle Association (AMA) in 1929. |
Though the Great Depression curtailed participation in the popular climb, by 1939 the AMA once again decided to hold a National Hillclimb event at Mount Garfield. For the event, a concrete staircase with the name of a sponsor etched in each of the three hundred and thirteen stair slabs was installed. Mount Garfield is the site of the first professional hill climb in America.
The climb was suspended during World War II but was resumed in 1946. A stone monument to the members of the Muskegon Motorcycle Club that died in World War II was erected at the entrance of the Mount Garfield grounds in 1949.
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The club purchased nearly 200 acres in Bridgeton Michigan and named the park in honor of the club's founder. Dan Raymond Park is host to many motorcycle events throughout the year and features a Hillclimb so steep it is named "The Wall". The park also features a newly renovated dirt dragstrip complete with lighting in 2013 and updated in 2016. |
The Muskegon Motorcycle Club still hosts the National Hill Climb Competition held at Mt Garfield every other August on even-numbered years. The next National HillClimb is scheduled for the first Sunday in August 2022..
