‘I Wish it Would Have Happened Through Proper Channels’; Michigan Man Convicted on Federal Charges for Diverting River in National Park

The image on the left shows the Platte River in ay 2022 before it was diverted. The image on the right shows the river after it was diverted in August 2022. Courtesy of the U.S. Attorney General's Office

A 63-year-old man in Frankfort, Michigan, has been convicted of two federal misdemeanor charges of tampering and vandalism after it was found that he had diverted a river within a national park by digging a new channel into Lake Michigan.

U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan, Mark Totten, said in a press release that Andrew Howard dug the channel that diverted the Platte River in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Park into Lake Michigan after a disagreement with authorities.