D H Day State Park

About D H Day State Park

Government researchers consider it one of the best forest populations in the Midwest, and its second-growing tree is considered by government researchers to be the best in the state. He owned more than 5,000 wooded acres in 1910 and promoted the reforestation movement that was forming in northern Michigan. Day had his own farm, called Oswegatchi, after the New York community where his father was born, where he played on its shores. Hay and corn were grown to feed him and his 400 pigs and 200 Holsteins, which were among the best in the states, according to the US Geological Survey.

The farm south of Glen Haven has a huge white barn that is now a landmark of Sleeping Bear Country. Day had a barn, a house and three other buildings built in the late 1880s and early 1890s. The outbuildings were outbuildings for pigsty, and the farmhouse and barn date from the early 19th century, according to the National Park records.

In the early 1920s, the Glen Haven Canning Company was founded on the dock and cherries and other fruits were shipped to various towns on the Great Lake. The plan was that if successful, it would become an important source of fresh fruit and vegetables for the local economy. As the roads improved, their importance as a jetty was lost, but in the late 1930s and early 1940s it was reopened as a cannery.

In large part because of this, the Glen Haven Canning Company was unsuccessful during the Depression, and in part because of a lack of investment in the area.

Day sold much of the land, including the reforested Alligator Hill, to a developer called Day Forest Estates. The airfield and clubhouse grounds were cleared, access roads were graded and an 18-hole golf course was built. Although the course is desolate and overgrown, the outlines of its fairways are now obvious to those who walk through the area. Although the golf courses had been in operation for several years, that project failed and Day sold the land, which included a reforested "Alligators Hill," to the owners of the Glen Haven Canning Company.

Day, the park is now home to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Recreation Area, the largest of its kind in Michigan.

He came to Glen Haven in 1878 at the age of seven and was the first chairman of the State Park Commission. When D.H. Day died in 1928 at the age of 76, newspapers reported that Michigan had lost King David North. He held the highest position in the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and served in both the House and Senate.