Celebrating an impressive 75 years at Sandcastle Beach Resort
It’s been 75 years since Sandcastle Beach Resort, originally Huronic Beach Resort, opened on the shores of Lake Huron.
“The original owners were there between 1945 and 1950,” said Tom Wdowik, who owns the business today with his wife Stacy. “The earliest record I could find was 1950, when it was completed, which makes this year 75. We believe it’s been open and running continuously.”
Wdowik said the resort was likely renamed in the early ’90s. Discovering the former name opened doors to old postcards, and even more history.
“We bought the business in 2013,” Wdowik said. “I was working full-time at General Motors, and my wife has a background in accounting, so we thought this would be something good for us. We stayed in Oscoda in 2000 for an anniversary at Huron House, which is just down the street from us, and we fell in love with the area.”
For the first few years, Stacy ran the business full-time, with Wdowik returning to assist on weekends. He retired in 2017 and has been there, marketing and making updates, ever since.
“We’re the ninth owners,” he said. “We’ve gone through a number of changes. Over the years, we’ve put in all new flooring for all the units, new doors, new windows, we’ve done a lot on the property itself in terms of landscaping.”
Two years ago, the couple gutted and refinished the main house, where numerous families stay year after year.
“It has more square footage now,” Wdowik said. “It gives families more room to congregate. We have a total of 10 units: five standalone, two-bedroom cottages with kitchens and a motel-style building with four suites (three single-room and one double-room), plus the main house. We have 200 feet of frontage along Lake Huron. There’s plenty of beach, plenty of room. It’s very family-oriented. We’ve got the playset and teeter-totter and ping-pong tables and shuffleboard and a basketball court.”
Some guests, he said, have been coming for 30 years.
“We knew when we first bought the place, we don’t call them customers,” Wdowik said. “We call them guests. My wife says, even though we’re the owners, we aren’t owners so much as stewards. We’ve owned it for 12 years, but the resort has been in business for 75. We’re not going to own it forever. We’re just making sure we keep this place current, where people want to come year after year.”
For the business’ milestone anniversary, the couple asked longtime guests to send photos, which they assembled into a booklet for perusal in the resort’s office.
“We did a kick-off earlier this year,” Wdowik said. “We had cookies and popcorn and an open house in May where people could wander the property. We’ve got banners that commemorate the anniversary.
“Business ownership in Oscoda has been an excellent experience in that, being in a smaller community, you get to know a lot of other business owners personally. It works both ways — we can recommend restaurants and, if they know people visiting, they can recommend a place to stay. I don’t think you could achieve that in a larger community.”
Wdowik is a current board member for the Oscoda Area Visitors Bureau. Through his role there, he said, he’s seen firsthand “how much people truly appreciate being this close to a Great Lake, a National Forest, the Au Sable River. We’ve got so much to do.”
Sandcastle Beach Resort, located at 3354 US-23, is open mid-May to mid-October. You can contact the business at 989- 739-7977.