 During the 1870s, Presbyterian evangelist Rev.George W. Wood, Jr. sold bibles to homesteading settlers throughout Charlevoix and Emmet Counties.Between 1868 and 1884, the Army Corps of Engineers used dredging and revetment to increase Pine River channel width from 75 feet to over 100 feet, and expanded the channel depth from under 6 feet to a depth of 12 feet.