Walden West nature preserve marks 10th anniversary of donation from Jim and Mary White
Posted Thursday, July 02, 2026
Author: Mickey Alvarado
This summer marks the 10th anniversary of Adrian College receiving Walden West, a diverse 119-acre nature preserve in Tipton, from donors Jim and Mary White of Ann Arbor.
For the past 10 years, Walden West has served as an outdoor classroom for Adrian College professors and students conducting a wide range of studies. The nature preserve, located about a mile east of Evans Lake and just north of Evans Creek, features wooded glacial moraines created 13,000 to 14,000 years ago that overlook a small lake and two ponds. The preserve also includes wetlands with one of the southernmost stands of tamarack in Michigan and fens where rare carnivorous plants thrive.
The Whites named the property Walden West because of its similarity to Henry David Thoreau’s writings about living at Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, which was also created by retreating glaciers.
Jim, a retired University of Michigan law and English professor, used the property as a writing retreat. Mary was a lawyer, law teacher and novelist.
Before donating the property to Adrian College, the Whites established a conservation easement with the Legacy Land Conservancy, which permanently protects the land in its natural state.
The Whites said they donated the property to Adrian College to “protect and preserve it.” Jim also was interested in having the property used for educational purposes.
“It is a beautiful, wonderful place,” Jim said. “I didn’t want to see it destroyed. On that road, there are little collections of houses up and down, and there are people who would buy the whole thing and develop it into a subdivision. We didn’t want that to happen.”
Adrian College Biology Department Chair and Walden West Director, Associate Professor Ben Pawlisch, said the last tour took place several years ago and was attended by members of the Michigan Botanical Society. The guests reported being very impressed with the fens, which are as rare as those found at the Nature Conservancy’s Ives Road Fen Preserve south of Tecumseh.
“They loved the fens and were pretty impressed with the carnivorous plants in that area, such as pitcher plants and sundews,” Pawlisch said. “We use it mainly for our students and get a lot of good use out of it.”
Coyotes, deer, ducks, eagles, hawks, owls, ruffed grouse, turkeys and warblers have been seen on the property. The small lake also contains at least three species of fish: bluegill, bass and trout.
Species of note observed on the property, primarily in the fen area, include:
- Sullivant’s milkweed, a state threatened species
- Purple milkweed, a state threatened species
- Swamp milkweed, a plant attractive to a variety of pollinators
- Polk milkweed, a plant attractive to a variety of pollinators
- Grass-pink, an orchid uncommonly found in southeast Michigan
- Tamarack, a healthy population is uncommon in Michigan
- Tulip tree, one is a “Michigan Big Tree”
- Pitcher plant, a rare carnivorous plant found in fens and bogs
- Star grass, a rare plant found in fens in southern Michigan
A student sighted an eastern massasauga rattlesnake, a state-threatened species, during a class outing. Another was found along the side of the road about a mile away.
Highly sought-after morel mushrooms have also been found there.
Pawlisch has been documenting a wide variety of birds on the property and having his students identify the species. Adrian College Professor Jim Martin teaches ecology, and his students collect insects and data about the trees. Professor Sarah Hanson uses the outdoor classroom for geology and environmental science instruction and has students evaluate water resources and soil deposits.
It is believed that an original section of the Native American Sauk Trail ran through the property, following the largest glacial moraine. In the 1931 Archaeological Atlas of Michigan, created by Wilbert Hinsdale and published by the University of Michigan Press, the Sauk Trail appears to pass through the north end of the property. When U.S. 12 was surveyed, the original trail was abandoned for a more convenient route about a half mile north of its original location.
John O’Shea, the University of Michigan’s Great Lakes archaeology curator, reviewed the historic maps and raw data from Hinsdale’s atlas to determine whether the belief was accurate.
“What I can tell you is that the trail ran either through or near to the property,” he said in his report, noting that much of Hinsdale’s data on trail locations came from the original surveyors’ notes and that, unfortunately, those records were not entirely consistent in documenting trail locations. “As such, there is simply not the precision here to give you a final and absolute determination of where exactly the trail ran and if it crossed your property,” O’Shea said, noting that it may be possible to locate the information in the original survey plats, which may be housed in the Bentley Historical Library, the Clements Library or the State Historical Center in Lansing.
Last November, a snap-base projectile point was found near the suspected Native American trail. An archaeologist evaluated the point and issued a certificate of authenticity, noting that it likely dates no later than the Late Middle Woodland period, around A.D. 400, and could be a small expanding-stem Hopewell-period point, such as a Chesser Notched. The point is made of Coshocton chert, which is found in the Ohio River Valley. The flaking suggests a Late Archaic to Late Middle Woodland age, from about 2000 B.C. to A.D. 600.
Crinoid and horn coral fossils, dating to approximately 350 million years ago, have also been found along the glacial moraines.
Thoreau believed nature was instrumental in higher education, and one can imagine he would have been delighted to see Adrian College using the great outdoors as a classroom.
“How important is a constant intercourse with nature and the contemplation of natural phenomena to the preservation of moral and intellectual health!” he wrote. “The discipline of the schools or of business can never impart such serenity to the mind.”
Jim Mahony, Adrian College Vice President of Development, said Adrian College is forever grateful to the Whites for their generous donation.
“Our students are able to connect with nature in an area that is truly unique and special,” Mahony said. “We are very fortunate to have the Whites’ gift of such an incredibly valuable property that will inspire future generations in environmental studies.”
To commemorate the 10th anniversary, a small guided hike at Walden West has been scheduled for the fall from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 25. Participants must register in advance and sign a liability waiver. For more information, contact Mickey Alvarado, Adrian College Director of Communications, at malvarado@adrian.edu.
Students interested in studying environmental science at Adrian College are encouraged to schedule a visit with the admissions office to see the facilities available for their studies. For more information, contact Lori Kosarue, Assistant Vice President for Enrollment, at lkosarue@adrian.edu.
