List of Michigan state parks
This is a list of Michigan state parks and related protected areas under the jurisdiction or owned by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Parks and Recreation Division. A total of 106 state parks, state recreation areas and trail state parks currently exist along with eight other sites as well as 16 state harbors on the Great Lakes. While the Parks and Recreation Division directly manages the large majority of the parks in the system, a few are either jointly-managed with other agencies or are leased to other governmental entities, either temporarily or  on an ongoing basis. Michigan's 101 state parks and recreation areas cover with 14,100 campsites in 142 campgrounds and over of trails. The state parks and recreation areas statewide collectively saw more than 26 million visits in 2016. History. Michigan's state parks system was started in 1919. Three Michigan state parks pre-date the creation of the park system in 1919: Mackinac Island State Park (1895), Michilimackinac State Park (1909) and Interlochen State Park (1917). Mackinac Island State Park was created in 1895. It had served as the nation's second national park for two decades beginning in  1875. In 1909, Michilimackinac State Park was created in nearby Mackinaw City. Both of these parks, along with Historic Mill Creek State Park are under the jurisdiction of the Mackinac Island State Park Commission. Interlochen State Park was purchased by the Michigan Legislature in 1917 and was the first public park to be transferred to the Michigan State Park Commission in 1920. Because Mackinac Island State Park was a federal gift with its own commission and jurisdiction, for those reasons some choose to not consider it the first state park even though it predates Interlochen State Park by nearly 25  years. Since 1919, 33 additional state park units have been decommissioned for varied reasons. The majority of these former state park units, 16, were transferred to counties or cities and are still local parks today. Four of the former units were incorporated into Michigan's two National Lakeshores when were created in the 1960s and 70s, while five others were removed and reverted into surrounding state lands (state game areas, state forests, state fish hatcheries, etc.). Four of the units were incorporated into larger state recreation areas in the 1940s in the Greater Detroit area, although one of those recreation  areas is now a local park. Two of the former state park units are now state forest campgrounds and another two units existed on state lands which were sold to private interests and closed. (The Former state park units section lists each of these former units.) Additional DNR facilities. DNR operates 746 boat launches on of designated public water access sites. It also operates 16 "harbors of refuge" as well as providing support for the other 61 harbors in the system. The harbors of refuge are approximately apart along the Great Lakes shoreline to provide shelter from storms and often  provide boat launches and supplies. There are 11 state underwater preserves covering of Great Lakes bottomland and ten of them have a maritime museum or interpretive center in a nearby coastal community. The DNR Parks and Recreation Division also manages 138 state forest campgrounds (including a dozen equestrian campgrounds). The Michigan state game and wildlife areas encompass more than . DNR also oversees the trail systems in the state. This includes of non-motorized trails, of rail-trails, of off-road vehicle (ORV) routes and of snowmobile trails. For a discussion of all protected areas in Michigan under all jurisdictions, see  Protected areas of Michigan. Michigan trail state parks. The following state trails are units of the State Park System. Several other state trails fall under Department of Natural Resources jurisdiction and/or maintenance, but are not state park units and are not included here. Michigan state forests. Michigan's state forest system is administered by the Forest Resources Division (FRD) within the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, not the Parks and Recreation Division (PRD) which manages the state park system, however the Parks and Recreation Division took over the recreation responsibilities of the Forest Resources Division (e.g. the state forest campgrounds  and the trails and pathways within the state forests) in January 2012.