"WALK" Urban Nature Route: North & South Glen Park (stop #4)
Did You Know?
Both parks are two of five city-owned “mini-parks” in our neighborhood, all designated for passive use.
North Glen Park is just under one acre, and its elevation change from Wellington Rd. to Kensington Dr. is 44 feet; the height of a 4-story house.
South Glen Park measures just over two acres, and its elevation change from Parkview Ave. to the floor of the glen is 48 feet – almost a five-story building!
The slope that runs along Parkview Drive was carved by glaciers. The valley floor is a perfect example of a glen that at one time was covered by a glacier’s melting waters.
The Stewards of Glen Park are Glen Park’s caretakers through Kzoo Parks Adopt a Park Program. They are removing invasive species, restoring native plants, and have developed a management plan for passive use of the park.
OF SPECIAL NOTE: The WALK Urban Nature Route mirrors some of the grounds of the Potawatomi Tribe Reservation.
When European settlers arrived in the area that was to become Kalamazoo County, the land was occupied by the Potawatomi Tribe, a branch of the greater Algonquin Peoples.
The Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians (Gun Lake Tribe) is part of the historic Three Fires Confederacy, an alliance of the Pottawatomi (Bodewadmi), Ottawa (Odawa) and Chippewa (Ojibwe). Tribal Nations in the Great Lakes region are also known as the Neshnibek, or original people. Learn more about the history of the Gun Lake Tribe HERE.
The original boundaries of the 19th century Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Pottawatomi reservation covers nine square miles. Below is a map of the reservation along with a rough guide as to where present-day roads follow its borders