Interlochen State Park is a 187-acre recreation area in northern Michigan on the narrow strip between Green Lake and Duck Lake, giving visitors water access on both sides. Created in 1917 when the Michigan Legislature bought the land for $60,000, it was first called Pine Park and became Michigan’s first officially recognized state park. The purchase was meant to preserve virgin pine, especially eastern white pine, after much of the state’s original forest had been cut. The park remains important as an accessible place to see old-growth red pine from before European settlement, and its setting later connected it to the nearby National Music Camp, now Interlochen Center for the Arts.