Milham Park has been a part of Kalamazoo for over 100 years, taking on many faces before the one we see today.
Running through the park in a horseshoe shaped bend is Portage Creek, a mostly shallow, but very wide flowing stream with a riverbed of deep mud and patches of rocks and pebbles. While there are rarely fish of any kind to be seen swimming through the water, there are plenty of water plants, ducks, geese and, in the spring and summer at least, aquatic insects like water striders.
The park has a large field at the back near the waterline of the creek. On a good hot day, the field is nice to wander and maybe have a picnic there, though if it has rained or had recent snowmelt, the whole field is mud and sludge.
Starting as farmland, it became a park in 1918, after being bought from John Milham in 1910 according to the Kalamazoo Public Library. Over the years Milham Park has played host to a tourist camp, a log cabin and even a zoo. Though those attractions no longer stand in the park today, they pulled in many visitors while they did.
The tourist camp was built on the north side of Portage Creek in 1921. When the camp first opened it was free for everyone, but not too long after, a small charge was added to discourage squatters from staying longer than they were welcome. People came from all over the world and stayed there.
In 1923 Milham Park played host to over 33 thousand people. Unfortunately, after only nine years, the camp was closed due to it being overrun with people unemployed by the Great Depression.
Three years later, the Milham Park Zoo was opened and stayed open for about 50 years. When it first opened there were only a handful of animals in addition to the ones that naturally wandered the park. Among the first animals to reside in the park were a pair of buffalo along with bears, foxes, owls, peacocks and most notably monkeys. Twice in the zoo’s history, monkeys even escaped from the zoo; once when the monkeys were brought into the zoo in 1939 and again in 1970.
The end of the zoo came in the early 1970s. The animals were being mistreated by visitors and fewer people showed up to see them. As the park was losing money, the zoo was shut down in 1974. The last bear in Milham Park died in 1977, marking the full end of the zoo.
The Log Cabin was built in 1930, standing two stories tall. It was initially meant to be a museum for old antiques and other oddities from Kalamazoo, but the museum didn’t stay open long. While the zoo held reptiles, the structure had been the reptile house then it was used as a sort of clubhouse, and finally as a storage shed. By the year 1964, the cabin was falling apart and was torn down.
Now we have the Milham Park of today, and unfortunately, some parts have fallen, if only slightly, into disrepair. Many of the grills placed around the park for visitors to use have rusted through and are rendered useless. The playgrounds all bear the signs of wear and tear from years of use by children of all ages; peeling paints, names written in Sharpie on the wall, rust-worn protective coverings, a broken sliding monkey bar. Many of the walking paths have degraded in quality towards the back of the park.
However, Milham Park still draws in visitors everyday, despite trading a tourist camp and a zoo for three playgrounds.
The park still holds a wide variety of plant life and is home to many animals. Everyday you can see squirrels running through the trees and chipmunks scurrying over the roots and rocks on the ground. You can hear the birds singing in the treetops and ducks floating along the creek. You can even see the Canada geese meandering the lawn and begging food off of park goers.
There are lush bushes lining the waterside, full of lady’s lace among other wild flowers in the spring. By the largest playground, there is a pond surrounded by cattails and rushes. There aren’t a whole lot of pine trees anywhere even though they’re really common in Michigan, but there are plenty of oaks and maples to fill the space.
The park has qualities both good and bad. It has damaged grills and run down playgrounds, but it also has bountiful plantlife lining the waterside of Portage Creek. The walking paths are at times rougher than the open grass next to them, but the park they wind through is clearly worth it as the park has visitors walking those paths every day.