In Flint, if you walk behind Southwestern Academy, past the sunken track and football field, the well-manicured baseball diamonds and tennis courts and their overgrown cousins, and the launching point for the Cronin Soapbox Derby Downs, you’ll find a creaky pedestrian overpass that crosses I-69 and seems to descend into a huge thicket of trees. This area, called the “Happy Hollow Nature Area” on old city maps, is not large, but it is a truly wild, barely traversed part of the city. I’ve been there a number of times, and as Flint has had to cut backs its Parks and Recreation budget, the place has become even stranger and more remote. Inside, there some slight evidence of humans: discarded clothing, blankets, drug paraphernalia. And occasionally, you will encounter some college student hiking back-and-forth between the Southwestern overpass and Fenton Road. But on the whole, it’s a pretty strange experience, visually resembling some of the more tangled patches of the Upper Peninsula, while never far from the rush of traffic on the expressway.
Happy Hollow makes an appearance in my novel Shattering Glass as the “Happy Hunting Grounds.” It goes by the same name in Urbantasm, a novel I’ve been working on for the last twenty years. Last week I went out exploring the area for a chapter of Urbantasm, and also met up with Melodee and Bob Mabbitt, Nayyirah Shariff, and some other friends to investigate some pipes and tunnels we could see off Fenton Road. Here are a few pictures of this fascinating place.
Aldrich Park is separated from the easternmost extent of the Happy Hollow Nature area by Thread Creek, near its convergence with Swartz Creek. The park runs from Fenton Road north to the Court Street viaduct where, passing through, one enters the neighborhood of Hall’s Flats. Like the Happy Hollow area, Aldrich has grown out of control in recent years. Although it has presently transformed into more a prairie than a forest, the fast-growing poplars and wetlands shrubs suggest that a young-growth forest is likely the park’s future.
I am very interested in learning more about the past and present (and future) of the Happy Hollow Nature Area and Aldridge Park. If you have any insights to share, please leave a comment below or email me at connor@connorcoyne.com.
