Before Michigan’s Adventures, This Was Michigan’s Most Popular Theme Park

Few things fill me with more fascination than watching a place that used to be so full of life become abandoned and slowly be overtaken by the elements. People exploring abandoned buildings, like this former Kmart that was used in the film Red Dawn. There's an eerie emptiness to places like this that intrigues me.

So I was surprised when my dad and I were talking the other day and he brought up this old amusement park he used to go to as a kid called Deer Forest, a theme park that opened in 1949 and closed in 2014. 

Located in Coloma, the petting zoo/amusement park allowed families to feed animals like deer and antelope, and also had various rides like a Ferris wheel that entertained families for over 60 years.

However, near the end of operations, the park was a shell of what it used to be. Deer were reportedly living in such poor conditions that authorities had to relocate over 150 malnourished deer from the property.

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Visitors were astonished to see deer so thin you could count their ribs. As a result, the park closed down with many of the buildings and equipment left to decay.

The 21-acre property was put up for auction in 2021. You can view aerial footage of the abandoned park in the view below, and a full walkthrough of the park below.