Update 6/23/2024 from Unknown: My grandfather was in a band called "Billy Murray and his Vermonters". His name was Leo "Red" Boisvert. They played here in 1928 & the photo is in the scrapbook of his travels. Here is a picture from 1928 photo of the Rustic Dance Palace.
Johnson's Rustic Resort goes back to 1925 and was operated by Earl and Delores Johnson. It was a vast parcel of 1500 acres on Houghton Lake that included 20 furnished cabins, a log hotel, a dance hall, saddle horses, shuffleboard, fishing, golfing, tennis, badminton, table tennis, playground, swimming, and boating. The place was later expanded to include a 54 unit motel. There was a tavern and restaurant also.
Over the years, the resort continued to change and it operated under different names and owners. The Johnson's sold in 1970. Eventually Randy Krause bought the hotel portion in 1993. By then, it was getting hard to keep the place going financially due to the maintenance costs and decreased revenue. It was sold in 2013.
Fortunately, the old dance hall still stands and is now Houghton Lake Historical Playhouse. The plot where this place stood confuses me a bit as the dance hall is on a lot that is not on the lake but much of this place was. So, I will assume the land across the road from the dance hall was once part of the original 1500 acre facility.