May 12th marks the one-hundred-year-anniversary of the establishment of Michigan’s state parks. The DNR is organizing several statewide events to commemorate the parks’ centennial.
The anniversary recognizes the creation of the Michigan State Park Commission in 1919. Its birth allowed Michigan to acquire lands for state parks.
So what was the first state park? It’s a complicated question. While Mackinac Island was acquired by the state nearly twenty years earlier, it wasn’t the first park transferred to the Michigan State Park Commission. That distinction falls to Interlochen State Park.
Maia Turek is the Promotional Specialist with the DNR. She said the centennial will celebrate the parks’ ongoing importance in Michigan
“Our state park centennial is about celebrating the people of Michigan and the visitors to Michigan who have made so many countless lifelong memories in our state park system. So, really, our centennial is all about hearing from everybody else.”
Turek said the DNR will be holding events at state parks throughout Michigan.
To access the DNR's state park centennial website, visit https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-350-79133_79205_85747---,00.html.
Note: The DNR is a financial supporter of WCMU.