Growing up in the Detroit metro area, Ben Dowdy remembers going hunting with his father from time to time. But he never took the hobby too seriously.
But when you attend college in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, an outdoorsman’s paradise with vast public lands and the allure of illusive trophy bucks, it’s easy to get sucked into the lifestyle.
Bit by the Hunting Bug
While attending Northern Michigan University, Ben played wide receiver on the school’s football team for two seasons. After an injury sidelined him, he began devoting more and more of his time outside of the classroom to the woods.
“Being up in Marquette, I mean, it’s the deer hunting capital of the world,” Ben said. “That’s where I really fell in love with it.”
Ben’s first love was bow hunting and he did a lot of it during his junior and senior years of college. He even wrote a paper about bow hunting for one of his courses.
Toward the end of his time in the U.P., Ben made two long-term life goals for himself. First, he wanted to one day purchase a hunting property. Second, he wanted to harvest a deer on his own land.
Moving South
After graduating from college in 2019, Ben took a job in Battle Creek, Mich., working for Voyager Dog Food, a start-up company founded by the father of one of his classmates at Northern Michigan University.
“When I moved here, I quickly realized there is not nearly as much public land as there was up in the U.P., so I began trying to find somewhere to hunt,” says Ben.
As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. Over time, Ben made connections and built friendships in his new home. These relationships opened up new hunting opportunities, not just for deer but waterfowl as well.
“I was able to meet a lot of people because I had a really good dog that people wanted to take out on hunts,” Ben recalls with a smile.
Finding a Lease
One of Ben’s friends, a local farmer, bought some farmland in Athens, Mich., a few miles south of Battle Creek around the time Ben moved to the area. A couple years later, when the friend mentioned that he was looking to lease the property, Ben jumped at the opportunity.
Ben knew gaining access to private land was key to having a consistent place to hunt without too much pressure from other hunters or having to drive hours from home each weekend.
“I think it would have been 2021. That was the first year that I leased the property,” said Ben. “I tried hunting the little public land that was around here and was having no luck at all. There were too many people and not enough ground.”
Ben quickly discovered the power of having a private place to hunt. The first year of his lease was the first time he had an excellent experience hunting downstate. He was hooked.
“The second year that we leased it, I had put in there that if something were to happen … I wanted first rights to buy,” said Ben. “I assumed, being farmers, they were going to keep all their land forever. But I wanted to have a plan, so that if something were to happen, I would get first dibs on the property.”
Ben’s foresight paid off.
Buying his Dream Property
In August of 2024, his friend decided to sell the property that Ben was leasing and gave Ben the opportunity to purchase it.
“My wife, Natalie, and I got married in August. So it was right after our wedding,” Ben said. “He called me and said, ‘Hey, we’re trying to buy something different. I know it’s kind of short notice, but we’re going to sell. Do you want it?’”
After talking it over the newlyweds made their biggest decision since tying the knot.
“We had a couple days to talk it over and, ultimately, it was perfect timing,” said Ben. “We just had the wedding, so we had some money saved up. It just kind of fell into our laps and we got really lucky to get it off market at a pretty good price.”
Ben says that he gave Natalie final say when they were considering the purchase and she was all in.
“I’m so lucky that my wife never doubted it. She was fully on board with, ‘Hey, this is your dream, let’s go make it happen,’” Ben said.
“It’s good to have good friends. It’s good to have a good wife. And it’s good to have a good dog,” he said with a grin. “There is nothing better than having all three.”
Once the decision to purchase the property was made, Ben knew he would need to find financing. A longtime fan of Michigan Out of Doors TV, he had seen ads for GreenStone on the program for years. When the time came to buy his own property, GreenStone was the first lender he reached out to. And the last.
After calling GreenStone, Ben got connected with another Ben – Ben Hawes, senior financial services officer at the Concord branch. The Bens hit it off immediately. “I had planned on looking at a couple different lenders, but on the first phone call I had with Ben I think we probably talked for an hour,” said Ben Dowdy. “I just felt so confident that he understood what I was trying to do. He was able to answer all the questions that I had. I honestly never looked anywhere else. It just made sense.”
According to Ben Hawes, he was able to help Ben Dowdy achieve his dream of owning his own property by walking the path with him.
“It was his first big purchase and the only mortgage he had ever pursued,” Ben Hawes said. “My goal was to treat him the way I would want to be treated.”
The fact that Ben Hawes was a fellow outdoorsman and avid hunter, that he shared a common sense of humor and showed an honest concern for helping him achieve his goals, and that he supported him throughout the entire loan process, made all the difference, according to Ben Dowdy.
When he learned that GreenStone is a member-owned cooperative that returns a significant portion of its profits through checks to its members each year through its Patronage program, Ben Dowdy recalls feeling that it sounded too good to be true.
Ben Dowdy and his loan officer, Ben Hawes
“When GreenStone does well, the customers do well. It’s a really cool program and seems really uncommon,” Ben Dowdy said.
Making Good on Goals
After only a few short years, Ben Dowdy was able to achieve the first of his goals he made back in college. He owned 40 acres of land.
A short time after the Dowdys purchased the property, Ben brought his father and brother out to hunt on the opening day of gun season. On his brother’s first hunt of his life, he shot a buck on Ben’s land.
For Ben, more than simply a place to hunt, his land is a place to build memories with family and friends. He aims to make improvements to the property each year and to one day pass it down to his future children.
“It was really cool living up in the U.P., being so surrounded by the traditional side of things. A lot of that stuff has kind of gone away. The deer camps don’t happen as often. There’s not the big family gatherings anymore,” said Ben.
“Being able to have a place of my own to get my dad back involved in hunting, and to take my brother out for his first hunt and sit in a tree stand with him when he shot his first deer - those things mean a whole lot to me. It was one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had,” Ben shared.
As the leaves start to change and the temperatures begin to cool, the opening day of deer season is just around the corner.
You know where Ben will be. Sitting in a stand on his land, looking to make good on his second goal from college.
To view the rest of the 2025 fall Partners articles please click here.
