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Main Woods Page Map Spring Walks History Ecology Useful Links Back to Eberwhite Elementary School
The Eberwhite Woods, a thirty-four acre tract of land at the western edge of the Old West Side, is an unusually well preserved example of the type of forest that once covered most of southern Michigan, including Ann Arbor. Originally part of the Eber White farm, it is now owned by the Ann Arbor Public Schools.
Before Eber White bought the land, it was used for hunting and camping by the various Indian tribes that populated these parts for eleven centuries. Also, Indians from other parts of the state doubtlessly camped there when they crossed Michigan on the St. Joseph trail which is now Liberty Street.
In recent years, a Hopewellian artifact, a conch shell, was found in the northeast corner of the woods by an Eberwhite student. Dr. Emerson Greenman, an authority on Michigan Indians, explained that Hopewellian Indians who lived in this area between 200 BC and 600 AD got conch shells by trading with people from the Gulf Coast area. They used them with their dead. Finding the conch shell has led to speculation that there may have been a Hopewellian burial site in or near the Eberwhite Woods, possibly near Zion Lutheran Church.
The first white man to own this land was Eber White who came to Ann Arbor in 1824 and bought a quarter mile section of which the present woods was the western boundary. Since this area was swampy, having several ponds (kettle holes left from chunks of ice in the glacier age), it was left wild and used mainly for wood gathering.
In 1915, when most of Eber White's farm was being subdivided for homes, the wooded area, then known as White's Woods, was sold to the University of Michigan for $8438. Science professors led field trips there, forestry professors used it as an example of proper forest management, and researchers used it for experiments. It was in the Eberwhite Woods that Dr. Frank Blanchard did his pioneer study of spotted salamanders that proved that precipitation, not temperature, is the primary stimulus for their migration.
During these years, Ann Arbor children also used the woods picking wildflowers, having picnics, and skating on the ponds in the winter. When the University bought the woods, they were out in the country, Seventh Street being the city limits. But by the 1940's, the city had grown and casual use by nearby residents was making it an undesirable place for sensitive experiments. As Saginaw Forest became the preferred place for research, University officials decided they no longer needed the Eberwhite Woods.
The University first offered the wood to the City of Ann Arbor in exchange for 25 acres of land at the airport. But before the City Council had time to decide whether to accept the offer, there was a big uproar at the University. Evidently, the forestry department had unilaterally made the decision and students in other fields, such as zoology and botany, objected that the woods were not just timber but a great learning environment. They were afraid that the city would put in paved walks and picnic tables or use the land to build apartments for returning vets. They signed petitions and made such a fuss that the Regents decided in 1946 to give the woods to the Ann Arbor Public Schools with the stipulation that they must be used only for educational purposes.
The first thing the Public Schools did with the new land was to build Eberwhite School on the eastern corner. Then children enjoyed their "school in the woods" as the architect christened it, but formal use of the woods in the school curriculum was not instigated until 1959 when William Stapp was hired to set up an outdoor education program. He developed nature activities for every grade level, including a field trip to the Eberwhite Woods by all first graders in the system.
In 1961, the city laid a storm sewer through the woods, cutting down trees in their path in order to reach the newly developed Dover Parkside subdivision. Already annoyed at this damage to the woods, the school system was further aggravated when the city assessed them $19,342 to pay for the sewer. Since the sewer was of no advantage to the woods, the school board refused to pay the bill and instead offered to give the woods to the city. The University objected, saying the terms of the gift did not allow the school system to do this. Finally, a compromise was reached whereby the school system kept the woods and paid only $9700 of the original assessment.
The discussion raised by the storm sewer controversy made many people in the community think more about the possible uses of the woods and in the same year a large group of people joined together to create a nature trail. A University of Michigan natural resources class, led by Grant Sharpe, planned the trail; a high school shop teacher, Emery Toogood, made the markers; and Boy Scout Troop 105 installed the markers and built two foot bridges.
Except for these trail marks and bridges, the Eberwhite Woods is today almost the same as it was in the days of the Indians. We are indeed lucky to have such an unspoiled spot of wilderness right in the middle of our city.