Clark Lake and the Irish Hills

The southeast corner of Jackson County rolls and dips in a way the rest of the county doesn’t. These are the Irish Hills — a band of hills and kettle lakes left by the glaciers and named for the Irish families who settled here. For more than a century it’s been a place city folks come to play, dotted with lakes, cottages, and old roadside stops.

The heart of it on the Jackson side is Clark Lake, a big spring-fed lake near Brooklyn. In summer it fills up with boats, swimmers, and a tight-knit cottage community that throws its own events all season — including a homemade-raft parade across the water. A walking-and-biking trail loops the shoreline, and there are a handful of golf courses nearby. It’s the kind of lake where people who grew up summering here keep coming back for generations.