History
Ann Arbor's city parks sit on the ancestral and traditional homelands of several indigenous Native peoples. Read a land acknowledgement from the city and learn more about the early history of the land.
Brokaw Nature Area is named for Joseph Donald (“Don”) Brokaw, the previous owner of the property. Brokaw was born in 1919 in Ann Arbor, and his parents, Roscoe and Eleanor, owned a dairy farm on Geddes Road called The Meadows, which is now Concordia College. Don graduated from University High School in 1938 before moving on to Parks College of Aeronautical Technology in East St. Louis. He was a fighter mechanic in England during World War II. In 1947, Don married his wife, Earldine, and the two bought the property that would become Brokaw Nature Area in 1952. Upon Earldine’s passing in 2003, Don started a foundation “to receive and administer funds for operating a park for the use of the general public.” He transferred almost $500,000 and his 25 acres into the foundation. Several parties expressed interest in Don’s property over the years, including developers and environmental educators from the Ann Arbor Public Schools. When Don passed away in 2010, many unusual legal circumstances made the future of the property uncertain. In 2013, the Michigan attorney general’s office granted the property and the endowment to the City of Ann Arbor. To read more about the Brokaws and the history of this property, see this 2014 article from the Ann Arbor Observer.
Read a Natural Area Preservation (NAP) Newsletter featuring the park shortly before it opened:
2017 Park Focus: Brokaw Nature Area by Amy Wells, NAP Crew