Grosse Pointe Farms is hilly, especially between Lewiston to the south and Moross to the north. This is due to the geology of the region--the hills represent a moraine that was left behind as the glaciers of the last ice age retreated.  

The hilly landscape in this area of the Farms is not its only unique feature. A drive north on Charlevoix--which is perfectly straight from Grosse Pointe Park all the way north--changes as you enter the Farms. As if out of no where, the sidewalk ends.  The homes along Charlevoix also come to an abrupt end. 

That's because this area of the Farms is home to a little foresty refuge: the remainder of the Pine Woods. If you are heading north and look to the right, tall imposing walls and chainlink fences hold back the steep hills and trees that tower above.

The first major discussion that involved what to do with the Pine Woods took place in 1945. 

In May of 1945, the Village of Grosse Pointe Farms Trustees considered purchasing the Pine Woods. A few weeks later in early June, an open letter from Edward Eichstedt, a Pointer who also was on the Detroit Planning Commision was printed in the Grosse Pointe News.

His primary concern was that there were not any adequate recreation areas for residents and their children. Despite the fact that there was quite a bit of undeveloped land, the worry at the time was that increased development might take away these lands and then areas for suitable parks would be harder to find.

Just to understand the vast size of the Pine Woods, in 1945 they were about 80 acres. The Pine Woods extended from Ridge Road to Chalfonte. Although the Pine Woods at one point had been an open area--free for the Pointer to wander, as of 1945 they were off limits. 

The 1945 proposal was to maintain the Pine Woods as a nature preserve and also as grounds for the Boy Scouts.  Despite Eichstedt's plea--as both a professional city planner and Pointer himself, in June of the same year, the proposal was defeated.

In the years following, there were other proposals for the Pine Woods. It was at one time considered as a place for Grosse Pointe's War Memorial. 

No formal plans every came together to maintain the Pine Woods as a protected space or recreational area. Over the next 50 years, slowly the suburb would encroach around the Pine Woods, until it was developed--all but the chain-link protected parcels that we have today.   

For most of us Pointers, we have only ever known the few last undeveloped acres of the Pine Woods, or have only our parents and grandparents to remind us of what they used to be. The Pine Woods is considerably smaller now, but for a few generations, the Pine Woods were a special place. Eichstedt concludes in his letter what it might mean if the Pine Woods were no longer there for Pointers to enjoy:

"It is a rather good thing that people are for the time being at least, prohibited from entering the Pine Woods.  As long as the area WAS open you did not appreciate what you had and what it will mean to be without that intriguing bit of "no mans land" (my opologies to the owners) We adults who were raised next to open country should recall what fun it was to roam and climb and coast and to turn over stones and to see what was underneath, to catch peepers in early spring, to build fires and roast potatoes and so on without end--always some new adventure--and therein lies the challenge: the mystery of wilderness--something different from a supervised playground, remember? Didn't it add something to your life?"

Eichstedt's last remarks are now more like an eerie prediction of the future: the development of our suburb at the cost of the vast open wilderness that once made up the center of Grosse Pointe Township. 

Do you have any memories of the Pine Woods? Or any thoughts on the few acres that remain of Grosse Pointe's little wilderness?