Onsted, Michigan: Prehistoric Forest

Located in the Irish Hills. We visited back in the early '70s when I was a kid. They use to give stagecoach rides and the stage was held up by robbers. Loved the "shoot outs" on main street. Had great stores along the main street, particularly use to love the visit to the General Store to get rock candy and stick candy. Looks like the even offer lodging now and included in the room rate is free admission.

I'm sad to say, Prehistoric Forest is now permanently closed. The waterslide has been dismantled, as well as the crazy maze. The building is for rent, and the animals look strangely deserted. A sad end to a unique attraction.

For Mothers Day I asked to go to my childhood strange stops with my own small family. My husband,our 6 year old daughter and I traveled US 12 to the Irish Hills and stopped at Mystery Hill. We met Vicky the owner and were the only ones to get a tour...we were the only ones there..and she made us wait....for no one else to show up. There was a prerecorded taped guide to start us out with. The showmanship was lacking so I took over. It left our daughter confused and my husband wondering about my sanity. I loved it!

I still have my tourist purchase of a small plastic purse from 1975 complete with the dino images in green and yellow on it.

On to Prehistoric Forest. It was closed and in a shambles. The dinos looked a bit better than the water slide (that wasn't there when I was a child). Someone had propped up the mammoth's tusks with a log and the other with a concrete block. I was so bummed that our child didn't get to experience the "cavemen" or get to touch the decrepit mammoth. Funny, she didn't seem to mind.

All in all it was an interesting visit. I walked away with a new Mystery Hill T-shirt, my husband fell victim to his wife's whims yet again and I hope our child came away with the same troubling wonderment from there that drove me back again some 25 years later.