An 80-year old boy scout park in Kalkaska county has been purchased by the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy and will soon become a public preserve.
The park is over 12-hundred acres - roughly half the size of Mackinac Island.
Jennifer Jay is with the Land Conservancy.
“It’s got an incredibly diverse plant and bird population out there we're already tracking so we’re of course eager to continue learning more and more about the property,” she said.
The property went up for sale after the state Boy Scout’s began to consolidate their parks.
Jay said the property has been well cared for and has almost no invasive species.
“It is beautiful,” she said. “To me it is what Michigan must have looked like 200-years ago. It is wild and astoundingly beautiful.”
Jay said over three years the organization fundraised just under four million dollars to purchase the land - a large portion coming from the Milock Family.
“So the property is now known as Upper Manistee Headwaters the Milock Family Preserve.”
The park is expected to open to the public sometime this summer.