Waterloo Area Offers Great Fall Scenery

Cooler weather is finally making an appearance in southern Michigan. Trees are beginning to display their f all color s. Soon the weekend migraüon will begin. Many southern Michigan residents will take to the roads in campers of all sizes and descriptions to enjoy the colorful wilderness áreas of northern Michigan. And rightfully so, for a weekend in the north country can leave one refreshed and ready to face the weekly grind once again. Contrary to popular belief, it is not absolutely necessary to go north to find wilderness áreas. Nor is it necessary to go camping to enjoy them. A thirty minute drive west from Ann Arbor will take you to 26,000 acres of public land comprising the adjoining Pinckney and Waterloo Recreation Áreas. Here one can find wilderness lands to enjoy for a week, a weekend, or an afternoon. I consider myself fortúnate to be able to live and work in Waterloo Recreation Area, whose 17,000 acres, in my estimation, rival many of the wilderness areas in northern Michigan. Waterloo boasts a long list of wilderness attractions including twenty-one lakes, twentythree hundred acres of shlands, numerous bogs with exotic orchids and insect-eating plants, rolling glacial hills covered by oak-hickory forest, and many scenic roads and overlooks. Waterloo has a full complement of wildlife. Nearly all the game animáis common to southern Michigan are found there, and many protected species as well. The greater sandhill crane is probably the most unusual species in the park. Only slightly smaller than the whooping crane, the sandhill stands four f eet tall and has a six and a half foot wing span. There are perhaps as many as 8,000 of these birds" in the entire country. To insure that they do not become another endangered species, they are completely protected. Several hundred pass through southern Michigan each spring and fall on the way to and from the ir nesting grounds in northern Michigan and Canada. Some find Waterloo's extensive marshlands so attractive that they go no further. In 1970 fourteen crane nests were found in the park, making Waterloo the most important nesting area for these birds in southern lower Michigan. In late September the sandhills begin gathering in the JWaterloo Area before they make their final push southward to their wintering grounds in Florida and the Gulf states. They reach peak numbers in m i d October, when it is not unusual to see twenty or thirty at a time in farm fields adjacent to park lands. The largest number observed at one time was just over two hundred at the Michigan Audubon Society's Haehnle Sanctuary at the western k edge of the park. Most cranes have left the area by early November and return again in early March. Not all the wildlife in the Waterloo Recreation Area are as spectacular as the sandhill cranes. Even the most commonplace can provide hours of pleasure for t h o s e who enjoy watching them. Waterloo Recreation Area was created during the chaos of the depression in the nineteen-thirties. Business and industry were not the only segments of the local economy that faltered. Many area farms also failed. So many that ia 1933 the Federal Resettlement Administration began purchasing many of these lands for recreational use. Over a period of ten years about fourteen thousand acres were acquired. At that tíme I the park was known as the Waterloo Recreational Demonstration Area or simply as the Waterloo Project. In 1936 the National Park I Service took over the I ministration of the area. At I this time as many as three I hundred W.P.A. (Works I jects Administration) workers I per month were employed in I the park. They r e c e i v e d I sixty-two dollars a month for I their labors. Under the I visión of the. National Park Service, they developed many I recreational facilities. In 1943 the Waterloo Project was turned over to the State of Michigan to be administered by the Department of Conservation. Since that time the department has gradually improved and expanded the facilities, and has acquired new lands as they have become available. Today the park facilities include the following : Two modern campgrounds with a total of 378 sites; one rustic campground with 50 sites; one horseman's campground with 25 sites; one ganization campground; a public beach and bath house; two large picnic grounds ; eleven roadside picnic sites ; two Frontier cabins; two outdoor education centers; twenty fishing access sites; three Nature Trails; a seventeen mile hiking trail; wildlife improvem e n t projects; waterf owl management areas; fish management projects. 4 Waterloo Recreation Área I ranks third among Michigan I State Parks in total I anee with nine hundred I sand visitors in 1970. Some came from as far away as Maryland and California. Despite the park's wide appeal there are many local citizens who have driven by the area for years without taking advantage of its recreation opportunities. Those who would like to get better acquainted with what the park has to offer will have the chance this fall. We will be conducting auto tours through the area on Saturdays and Sundays, October 2nd and 3rd, 9th and lOth, 16th and 17th, 23rd and 24th. Two tours of about two hours each will be conducted each day - I one at 10:00 a.m. and one at 2:00 p.m. These tours have ! been quite popular in past I years. Those who wish to avoid the large turnouts should plan to attend one of the morning tours. The tours will include stops at glacial formations, wildlife and waterfowl management areas, points of historial interest and various park facilities. The tours will begin at the beach parking lot at the Big Portage Lake Unit. Visitors from Ann Arbor and east use I-94 exit 150 (Grass Lake Exit), turn north and follow the area signs. k vïsitnrs should wear ing appropriate for the weather. Comfortable shoes will also be helpful as it will be necessary to leave the cars and walk a short distance to reach some of these areas. The route will include many scenic roads and fall color areas. Area maps and historical information will be given out before each tour. Hope to seeyou there.