Seven Lakes State Park is a public recreation area covering one mile northwest of Holly in Holly Township,

Oakland County Oakland County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is part of the Metro Detroit, metropolitan Detroit area, located northwest of the city. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 Census, its population was 1, ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. The

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...

's of water are found in six named lakes that include 170-acre Big Seven Lake, Little Seven Lake, and 44-acre Dickinson Lake.

History

The park's roots lie in a failed development scheme. In 1967, private interests built a dam on Swartz Creek in the

Flint River The Flint River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 15, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Georgia. The river drains of western Georgia, flowing south from the u ...

watershed to create one large lake, Decoup Lake, from seven small lakes. When the developers gave up their efforts, the state purchased the site in 1969, naming it Seven Lakes State Park and its largest body of water Big Seven Lake. The park opened in 1977; a campground on Sand Lake was opened in 1992.

Activities and amenities

Big Seven Lake offers fishing for largemouth and smallmouth bass,

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus '' Esox'' (the pikes). They are typical of brackish and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). They are known simply as a ...

walleye The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the yellow pike or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States. It is a North American close relat ...

yellow perch The yellow perch (''Perca flavescens''), commonly referred to as perch, striped perch, American perch, American river perch or preacher is a freshwater perciform fish native to much of North America. The yellow perch was described in 1814 by Samu ...

black crappie The black crappie (''Pomoxis nigromaculatus'') is a freshwater fish found in North America, one of the two types of crappies. It is very similar to the white crappie in size, shape, and habits, except that it is darker, with a pattern of black sp ...

, and

channel catfish The channel catfish (''Ictalurus punctatus'') is North America's most numerous catfish species. It is the official fish of Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Tennessee, and is informally referred to as a "channel cat". In the United States, the ...

. Recreational facilities in the park include campsites, swimming beaches, picnic areas, boat launches, trails for hiking and mountain biking, and hunting areas.

References

External links

Seven Lakes State Park
Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Seven Lakes State Park Map
Michigan Department of Natural Resources {{authority control State parks of Michigan Protected areas of Oakland County, Michigan Protected areas established in 1971 1971 establishments in Michigan IUCN Category III