56. Summertime Tent Village

Location: Park Street near Mt. Baldhead Park
Date: 1890s-1930s

Starting in 1884, campers began pitching tents in the “Park Lands” at the new Mount Baldhead Park. By the early 1900s, the wooded dunes between the Kalamazoo River and Lake Michigan were dotted with tent villages. (There was similar activity along Lakeshore Drive.) The heavy canvas structures were erected each spring on top of wooden platforms. The campers brought all the comforts of home including furniture, iron stoves, and even their bird cages. Tenting sites were often used by a particular family year after year and many of the platforms later became the floor of a permanent family cottage.