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
here.
Earhart West Park was dedicated to the city by the developer of the surrounding neighborhood (John Kurkjian) to be used as parkland and approved by the city in 1980. Earhart Park and Earhart West Park, like Earhart Road, are named after the Earhart family who lived on a 400-acre estate along the Huron River with 40 acres of woods for horseback riding. This was accomplished by Harry Boyd Earhart who was born in 1870 and made his fortune in the gasoline business when automobiles were becoming established. He was very wealthy when he sold his company to what later became Mobil Oil. He died in 1954 at the age of 83 and is buried at Botsford Cemetery, just up the road from the park. The Earhart foundation, which he established in 1929, funds educational projects but also nature conservancy ones as well. Earhart was one of the founders of the Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority which is responsible for the string of parks still operating today along the Huron River watershed.
Read a Natural Area Preservation (NAP) newsletter highlighting Earhart West and several other small nearby parks:
2016 Park Focus: Earhart, Earhart West, Glazier Hill, and Glacier Highlands by Katie Carlisle