With another summer now on the books in Southwest Michigan, Berrien County Parks Director Jill Adams says things overall went smoothly at Silver Beach.

Adams tells us she doesn’t have the final attendance numbers yet, but the park in St. Joseph was as full of life as any other year.

“This year started off slow in May, as far as numbers at the park, but we did see a rebound in June and July,” Adams said. “We’re still working on getting our August numbers together as well as the holiday weekend, but we are very on track to be consistent with our 2024 visitor numbers.”

And 2024 was the busiest year at Silver Beach since the pandemic. Adams says the season, as a whole, was “remarkable.”

“It was a fantastic year. We had wonderful staff, great lifeguard team, our vendors on site with the concession stand and kayak rentals all worked well together and just had a great summer.”

There were a couple of fights that shut down the beach early in the summer, but after those initial bumps, Adams says there was little trouble. That’s partly because the Berrien County Sheriff’s Department acquired some new enforcement powers, including the ability to ban troublemakers from all county parks for a year.

Plus, Adams says 2025 marked the debut of the new playground at the beach, which she describes as a big hit, and improvements at the concessions area. She thanked the entire staff for making the summer of 2025 another good one.