The Seney National Wildlife Refuge

The middle of Schoolcraft County belongs to the wildlife. The Seney National Wildlife Refuge spreads across more than 95,000 acres of marsh, swamp, bog, and forest between the little towns of Seney and Germfask — one of the largest wildlife refuges east of the Mississippi, and one of the great quiet places in Michigan.

It’s also a recovery story. A century ago this land had been logged over, burned, ditched, and drained, then abandoned when farming failed in the poor soils. The refuge was established in 1935 to bring it back for migratory birds, and Civilian Conservation Corps crews built the chain of pools that still anchor it today. The comeback worked beyond anyone’s hopes: trumpeter swans, reintroduced here in the 1990s, now glide across the pools by the dozens, alongside common loons, bald eagles, ospreys, and sandhill cranes — more than two hundred bird species in all, plus otters, beavers, bears, and the occasional moose or wolf. The wildest western corner, the Seney Wilderness, protects the Strangmoor Bog, a rare landform recognized as a National Natural Landmark.

The easiest way in is the Marshland Wildlife Drive, a slow one-way auto loop past pools and observation decks, open mid-May through late October along with the visitor center south of Germfask. Plan a visit at fws.gov/refuge/seney.