Tucked into a hillside off old U.S. 27, between Frederic and Ga***rd, Michigan, is the remains of the Underground Forest, a short-lived tourist attraction of taxidermy animals frolicking amongst nature scenes. The attraction came as the result of the mutual passion held by Carl William and Hattie Mae Johnson; a passion for Michigan wildlife and taxidermy. The couple—Hattie claimed to be “into it”
as much Carl—began constructing the place soon after they married in 1940, with weekend trips collecting mounted wildlife. It was a business his father started in their Frederic garage in 1927, which by the mid-1950s employed 100 people and shipped its rustic souvenirs to 2,600 retailers across the United States. For nearly ten years the couple looked for a way to expand their vision of taxidermy in nature, traveling thousands of miles collecting specimens and visiting museums to gather ideas. Eventually, Carl purchased 40 acres of farmland north of Frederic and started sketching plans for their wildlife museum. They first considered building a scenery viewing tower but abandoned the idea to instead a manmade cave to showcase their collection. Into a shallow hillside, Carl constructed a 240-foot-long concrete edifice resembling an ice burg. But like a real cave, the structure soon took on moisture and Johnson had to purchase dehumidifiers to remove the dampness. To create settings for their specimens, Johnson hired local artists Charlie Calkins and Elmer Johnson to paint diorama-like scenes, using real trees, rocks and grass, to give the backgrounds a three-dimensional character. When completed, their “underground forest” included 32 florescent-lit nature scenes, with bears climbing trees, fish jumping out streams, pheasants poised at a prairie opening. The attraction opened on July 1, 1957, to the slogan of “See Something New in the North.”
Johnson bet that families heading north during the summer wanted “to see something different,” and planned to expand with picnic grounds and hiking trails. But the new business received a big blow in 1962, when Interstate 75 to the east, diverted traffic from the older highway. It survived three more years, shutting down when the Johnsons moved their collection to Ga***rd, where they opened in 1965, Call of the Wild, a revised version of the earlier attraction, featuring 150 mounted animals in a grotto-like setting. Carl died in 1973, and Hattie passed in 2000. The old building on U.S. 27, now North Old 27, went through changes over the years, serving at different times as a junk shop and a private residence. And then for a while, a home for Black Sabbath-candle parties. A Frederic woman whose mother worked there briefly before leaving, because she got the “creeps,” described it as “a dingy underground dungeon with all kinds of hidden tunnels that were closed off to the public.”
Today, its sits abandoned, looking like a capsized ship made of cottage cheese.
