Camp Woodbury / Lewis Emery Park

On July 2, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued a call for troops for the Union Army. Men from Monroe, Hillsdale and Lenawee counties met in Hillsdale to form the Eighteenth Michigan Infantry Regiment. Local mill owner Lewis Emery volunteered this land for the regiment’s use. Near here they created Camp Woodbury, named for Colonel Dwight Woodbury from Adrian. The men trained at Camp Woodbury from July to August. The regiment was mustered into service on August 26, 1862, under the command of Colonel Charles Doolittle. Lewis Emery Park In 1930 the Hillsdale chapter of the Izaac Walton League partnered with the Michigan Conservation Department to establish a pond here to raise fish for sport fishing and conservation. It yielded more than 472,000 bluegills in its first year. Over the next few years, laborers employed by the federal relief Civil Works Administration dug five more ponds which were used to raise bluegill and bass. After the state stopped using the ponds in the early 1960s, the land was deeded to Hillsdale County and renamed Lewis Emery Park.