Photos of the Interlochen Bowl: 1920s-1979

The town of Interlochen was so named due to its location between two lakes, about 10 miles southwest of Traverse City. The area once contained the (now) ghost town of Wylie and began as a railroad station.

Wylie was started a mile south of Interlochen by the Wylie Cooperage Company in 1888 with a railroad station named ‘Wylie’s’. The town was dependent on the lumber trade, specifically elm trees. When the elms became depleted, the town folded around 1915. Driving through there these days, you can spot a few remnants of the former village of Wylie.

A post office in Interlochen was implemented in 1890; ten years later, a Quaker by the name of Willis Pennington arrived. He opened a drug store and a children’s camp in the late 1900s.

Get our free mobile app

In 1927, he coaxed Joseph Maddy of the University of Michigan to relocate here and set up his National High School Orchestra Camp Association; in 1928, the Interlochen Center for the Arts was established.

Over the years, the Interlochen Bowl has been host to many of the popular music performers of the 20th and 21st Centuries. If you scroll down a way, the photo gallery below shows the Bowl in different decades, from the 1920s to 1979...