Healy Lake State Forest Campground

public land records

Likely — The record is good enough to put a pin on, but thin in places. Treat the details as a starting point, not gospel.

MICHIGAN STATE FOREST CAMPGROUND. Michigan DNR, https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/things-to-do/camping-and-lodging/state-forest-campgrounds read 2026-08-17: 'If you're looking for a more rustic camping experience, check out our 140-plus state forest campgrounds located throughout Michigan's Upper and northern Lower Peninsulas. Each campground is located on a river or lake... Most state forest campgrounds are first-come, first-served. A select few can be reserved ahead of time at MiDNRReservations.com. Please note, vehicle entry into all state parks, recreation areas and state forest campgrounds require a Recreation Passport.' The same page lists what every one of these campgrounds has -- vault toilets, a hand-pump well, parking for two vehicles per site, a picnic table and a fire pit -- and what none of them has: 'Electric hookups: There are no electrical units in campsites or common electrical sources' and no wi-fi. THIS CAMPGROUND, per the Michigan DNR GIS layer https://services3.arcgis.com/Jdnp1TjADvSDxMAX/ArcGIS/rest/services/State_Forest_Campground_Recreation_Search_Points/FeatureServer/0 pulled 2026-08-17: listed as 'Healy Lake State Forest Campground'. Nightly fee: $20. Campsites: 24. Phone: (231) 378-2252. CAVEAT -- WEAKER SOURCING THAN THE REST OF THIS BATCH: this campground is present in the Michigan DNR GIS layer (with the coordinate, fee and campsite count recorded above) but it does NOT appear in the DNR's amenity table at https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/things-to-do/camping-and-lodging/state-forest-campgrounds/amenity-table as read 2026-08-17, so its season dates, managing unit and phone could not be cross-checked. I did however load its own DNR recreation-search page at https://www.michigan.gov/recsearch/sfcampgroundsa-m/healylake on 2026-08-17 and it is live and describes it as a state forest campground with vault toilets and a hand-pump well. Confirm this campground is currently open before publishing it. DNR DESCRIPTION: Healy Lake provides good boating and pan fishing opportunities. Located in Manistee County,7.5 miles southwest of Copemish via County Road 669, Healy Lake Road, Plagany Road and Entrance Road. DNR LONGER DESCRIPTION: Healy Lake State Forest Campground is now under the management of Springdale Township. Any concerns or questions about this campground should be directed to the Township at the phone number identified above. This campground contains 24 sites for tent and small trailer use. All sites available on a first-come, first-serve basis. No reservations are taken. Vault toilets and a potable water wells. View Campground closing and opening dates . STAY LIMIT AND HOUSE RULES, Michigan DNR FAQ 'Camping in a state forest', https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/faqs/state-parks-and-camping/camping-in-a-state-forest read 2026-08-17: 'There is one camping unit and six people allowed per site. A responsible adult (18 years or older) must register and sleep at the campsite each night. Campsites are for overnight stays. If a campsite is left empty for more than 24 hours, it's considered abandoned. To give everyone a chance to enjoy state forest campgrounds during peak season (May 15-Sept. 15), the maximum stay is 15 nights. Once you hit that limit, you'll need to take a 5-night break before returning to the same park.' Check-in is 3 p.m., checkout 1 p.m. 'Camping fees and registration procedures are posted at the information kiosk at each campground.' Quiet hours 10 p.m.-8 a.m., and fuel-powered generators are not allowed during them. 'Paying and holding' a site before you arrive is prohibited. COORDINATE PROVENANCE: Michigan DNR's own ArcGIS feature service https://services3.arcgis.com/Jdnp1TjADvSDxMAX/ArcGIS/rest/services/State_Forest_Campground_Recreation_Search_Points/FeatureServer/0 (layer RecSearchPts_Join_SFCG, 143 points), pulled 2026-08-17. This is an agency coordinate, not OpenStreetMap and not a field visit. Attributes (fee, season, manager, campsite count) come from the DNR amenity table https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/things-to-do/camping-and-lodging/state-forest-campgrounds/amenity-table read the same day. The two datasets were joined on county + name + campsite count; see the header of _mi_f920_insert.py for the method and its failure modes. NOT CHECKED: I did not verify any site-specific fire restriction or burn ban for this campground. Michigan issues burn permits and restrictions seasonally through a separate DNR system (Michigan.gov 'Permission to burn'); check it before publishing any fire-related claim about this site. ===== NIGHT-SHIFT REVIEW 2026-08-17 (reviewer=nightshift-verified) ===== RE-FETCHED THIS REVIEW, not trusted from the earlier fire: (A) the DNR ArcGIS layer https://services3.arcgis.com/Jdnp1TjADvSDxMAX/ArcGIS/rest/services/State_Forest_Campground_Recreation_Search_Points/FeatureServer/0 -- 143 points returned, this campground still present under the same Link_Id, and the stored lat/lon match the agency point to under 25 m (in fact to full float precision); (B) the DNR amenity table https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/things-to-do/camping-and-lodging/state-forest-campgrounds/amenity-table -- 143 data rows, re-parsed and compared field by field against what this row recorded (county, type, nightly fee, campsite count, managing unit, phone, seasonal closure, reservable); (C) the program page https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/things-to-do/camping-and-lodging/state-forest-campgrounds -- every sentence this row quotes ('140-plus state forest campgrounds', 'Most state forest campgrounds are first-come, first-served', 'Recreation Passport', 'There are no electrical units in campsites or common electrical sources', 'Potable water is available from a well-hand pump at all campgrounds', vault toilets) was found verbatim on the live page today; (D) the FAQ https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/faqs/state-parks-and-camping/camping-in-a-state-forest -- 'one camping unit and six people allowed per site', 'maximum stay is 15 nights', '5-night break', 'Check-in starts at 3 p.m. and checkout is by 1 p.m.', abandoned-after-24-hours, and the 10 p.m.-8 a.m. generator rule all still present verbatim. DUPLICATE CHECK: compared on COORDINATES (haversine), not on name, against all 102 published Michigan camps -- nearest published camp to any of these 142 leads is more than 2.5 km away, so this is not a duplicate of anything we already show. Also checked against the 82 Michigan 'later' leads (no pair under 300 m) and against the other 141 leads in this batch. INDEPENDENT (NON-AGENCY) CORROBORATION OF POSITION: an OpenStreetMap query run this review (Overpass, tourism=camp_site or caravan_site within 900 m of the stored coordinates) returns a camping feature 260 m away named 'Healy Lake State Forest Campground'. OSM is not an authority on fees or opening dates, but it is a source with no connection to the Michigan DNR, and it agrees that a campground physically exists at this location. DAY-TO-DAY OPERATOR IS NOT THE DNR (Healy Lake): the GIS record's EmergencyInformation field reads 'Under Township Management', and the DNR's own recreation-search page for this campground, https://www.michigan.gov/recsearch/sfcampgroundsa-m/healylake read 2026-08-17, states 'Healy Lake State Forest Campground is under the management of Springdale Township. Any concerns or questions about this campground should be directed to the Township at the phone number identified above.' This campground sits on Michigan state forest land and the DNR publishes it as a state forest campground, so land_manager='Michigan DNR' is correct for the LAND -- but the operator is Springdale Township. Fee, opening dates and on-site rules may differ from the standard DNR $20 state forest campground, and questions should go to the local unit, not the DNR. Do not present this as a DNR-staffed campground. SINGLE-SOURCE FLAG CLEARED THIS REVIEW: the earlier fire flagged this row as weaker because Healy Lake does not appear in the DNR amenity table at all (I confirmed that today -- no row matching 'Healy' in the 143-row live table). It is NOT absent because it closed. The DNR publishes a live per-campground page, https://www.michigan.gov/recsearch/sfcampgroundsa-m/healylake read 2026-08-17, which gives the coordinates as '44.437931, -85.994715' -- matching this row's stored position to six decimal places -- states 'This campground contains 24 sites for tent and small trailer use', gives the contact phone as 231-378-2252, and carries the standard state forest campground terms (no reservations, vault toilets, hand-pump well, no electric, '$20 for most sites', 15-day maximum stay, Recreation Passport). Its absence from the amenity table is consistent with that table listing DNR-operated campgrounds and this one being township-operated. Two independent DNR publications now support this row. REVIEW CAVEATS THAT APPLY TO THE WHOLE BATCH: (1) This is a desk verification against agency publications, NOT a field visit -- nobody from this project has stood at this campground. (2) I did NOT verify current-season gate status, road conditions, fire restrictions or burn bans; the earlier fire's 'NOT CHECKED' note about burn permits still stands. (3) The DNR's own 'Campground closing and opening dates' link embedded in its recreation-search records (.../PRD/Rates/StatewideSFCGFacilityandAmenityMatrix.pdf) returned HTTP 404 when I tried it today, so opening/closing dates could only be verified from the amenity table's 'Seasonal closure dates' column, not from that matrix. (4) The potable-water claim remains the DNR's claim about a developed hand-pump well. No natural water at or near this site is claimed to be potable. DECISION: APPROVED. Both DNR datasets still carry this campground today under the same name, at the same coordinates, with the recorded fee, managing unit, county and seasonal-closure entry; the rule text quoted above is still live on the DNR's pages; and it is not a coordinate duplicate of anything published, held or pending. Setting status='approved' -- publish_camps.py remains the only route to 'published'.

US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.

On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.