(Chelsea Update would like to thank Tom Hodgson and the Waterloo Natural History Association for the photos and information in this mid-week column.)
Each year, the Waterloo Natural History Association seeks to complete a new project designed to enhance the programs and services provided by the Discovery Center. Projects completed in past years included the center’s observation deck, the observation bee hive, living life cycle exhibits, and the replacement of the aging boardwalks on all trails.
The project chosen for 2015 was to complete a new audio-visual program to tell the park’s story. The old one depended on multiple slide projectors which are now obsolete. The projectors are no longer made and replacement parts are hard to come by. As a result the old program has not been shown for several years.
The new program features digital technology and is run with a lap top computer and a single digital projector, and a majority of the work was done in 2014. Several years earlier, WNHA volunteers took the park’s extensive slide collection and scanned over 2500 images, converting them to a digital format. This provided a library from which to choose images for the new program. The originals of some of these images dated back to the 1930’s.
WNHA members Tom Hodgson and Carol Strahler collaborated on the script. This January, the script and sequenced images were turned over to Russell Studios of Ann Arbor to create the finished product. Funding for the project was provided by the Waterloo Natural History Association and a generous $2,100 donation from the Home Makers Club of Chelsea.
The resulting program is 12 minutes long and tells the story of the park from the ice age to the present. Visitors will leave the program with a better understanding of the park’s history, natural resources and recreational opportunities.
Waterloo is the largest state park in the Lower Peninsula and includes more ecological diversity than any other. The program will be shown in the auditorium on a continuous basis unless the room is otherwise needed for a specific event or program.
Those who would like to know more about this wonderful local resource are encouraged to visit the Discovery Center and experience the program. Summer hours for the center are Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.
The Discovery Center also houses many interesting exhibits including an active observation bee hive.
