Idlewild, Michigan
Located 15 miles northeast of Woodland Park in Lake County, Michigan, Idlewild is an African American resort known more popularly as “The Black Eden”. Founded earlier in 1912, Idlewild was a major cultural and entertainment hub between the 1920s and 1960s. It shares a symbiotic relationship with Woodland Park, with residents and visitors attending events and vacationing between the two resort communities.
Today, Idlewild is recognized on the National Register of Historic Places and continues to honor its history through local events, historic markers, and intentional plans to support community and economic development.
“For sheer physical beauty - for sheen of water and golden air, for nobleness of tree and flower shrub… it is the beautifulest stretch I have seen for twenty years; and then to that add fellowship - sweet, strong women and keen-witted men… all with the wide leisure of rest and play - can you imagine a more marvelous thing than Idlewild?”
— W.E.B. DuBois, “Hopkinsville, Chicago & Idlewild”, The Crisis (August 1921).