Oliver Family Nature Preserve
Acquired in 2014
Overview
Bud (Floyd) and Ann Oliver gave the Cadillac Area Land Conservancy a 15-acre parcel of land on the outskirts of Harrietta to use as a preserve open to the public for hiking, fishing and other outdoor activities. This little gem has Slagel Creek running through it and gives access to the US Forest Service lands on its northern border.
On this border was once the Great Lakes Central Railroad line known as the Toledo, Ann Arbor, and Northern Michigan Railway.
Crossing the railroad tracks you enter a 78-acre parcel of The Huron Manistee National Forest. Since this area of the national forest has very limited public access, this preserve will allow better access and use of the federal property.
History
Bud remembers…
Bud’s grandfather built a home in Harrietta in the early 1900’s. The house is still there just behind the Village Hall. He remembers the large wood-burning stove used for cooking and heating and the milk/cream separator that he loved to crank, separating the cream for making butter and the skim milk to feed the farm animals.
When his grandfather needed more land to pasture his milk cows, Bud’s father, Forrest, bought this 15-acre parcel for additional pasture.
As a young boy, Bud loved hiking this property, fishing on Slagle Creek and picking and eating the yummy blackberries that grew on the northern part of the property.
When Bud’s grandfather died in 1940 the pasture became dormant so his father had several acres of Scotch and Red Pine trees planted on the land. Because of the ruggedness of the terrain, his father’s health, and Bud going off to high school and college and then moving to California, the potential Christmas trees were never properly cared for nor harvested.
Bud’s mother, Frances, left the property to him when she died in 1996, and the Olivers have now donated it to the Cadillac Area Land Conservancy.
