Early State Parks

By the end of World War I, with the rapid growth of the recreation industry in Michigan, a need for a statewide parks system had arisen. In 1919 the State Park Commission was established. D. H. Day State Park, honoring the commission’s chairman, was the first park that it set up. When state parks were transferred to the Conservation Department in 1921 over twenty other sites had been acquired, most of them, like D. H. Day State Park, beautifully located on lakeshores.