Preserve history

Asylum Lake Preserve encompasses roughly 217 acres of land along with a 47-acre lake and a smaller 10-acre lake. First purchased from Michigan's Kalamazoo District Land Office by Phineus Hunt in 1831, the land soon passed to Neil Hindes, whose family farmed it until the Michigan Asylum for the Insane—later the Kalamazoo State Hospital—acquired it in 1887 as part of a "Colony Farm" and recreation experiment. The asylum, which gave the lake its name, built patient cottages, a heating plant, and a water tower before the complex was phased out in 1969 and demolished. Ownership passed to Western Michigan University in 1975 under a state act restricting the land to "public park, recreation or open space purposes," and after years of farming leases, a 1998 conservation endowment, and local opposition to nearby development, the Board of Trustees adopted a Declaration of Conservation Restrictions in 2004 to protect the preserve's ecosystem, ensure passive recreation, and support research and education. Today, it remains a well-used haven for recreation, learning, and scientific study. Read more here.