Highland Recreation Area Photography by Kozmic Dreams

My Photography of the

Edsel & Eleanor Ford Property on Haven Hill

Highland Recreation Area, White Lake, MI

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Visit on 11-6-11

This was my first time visiting this place. I went with my friends Greg and Darryl. Greg has been going here since he was a kid, but it was Darryl's first time visiting. In addition to lots of natural settings, this was the estate of Edsel and Eleanor Ford from 1923-1943, but unfortunately, the only building currently still in good shape is the carriage house. The main home was destroyed by arson and is in ruins. We also saw the sheep barn, which was also partially destroyed by high winds in 2008. You can find out more information about this special place here: http://www.havenhillproject.org/

We started up the hill to get to the carriage house...

Photos of the carriage house...

To the right of the carriage house are the ruins of the Edsel and Eleanor Ford home...

Next, we walked down some rather steep trails to get to the old swimming pool, which was huge. It was down below the area where Darryl and I are looking in the photo above. The green part is not the swimming pool, but more like an embankment to hold back the dirt from the hill and keep it from getting into the pool.

I was content just looking at the pool from above until Greg climbed inside, lifted up some boards, and announced that there were salamanders underneath. Then I had to climb in too. I have never found salamanders in the wild in my whole life, so this was extremely exciting for me. There were two different species, several that were red, and one that was brown. I still have to research what kind they are.

Here are photos of the barn and the area around it...

This is Teeple Lake. We counted 20 barbecues, but there was only one picnic table. Quite comical.

This is Haven Hill Lake. The first few photos are of the walk through the field to the lake. It was nearly sunset when we got here. There was an interesting streak of clouds.