At Hager Park in Georgetown Township, visitors can walk from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic — all without leaving Ottawa County. The park’s sprawling relief map of the United States, complete with state lines, rivers and mountain ranges rendered in raised berms and gravel outlines, has drawn families for decades. But after more than 50 years of exposure to Michigan weather, the landmark had fallen into disrepair, until a local teenager decided to bring it back.
Wyatt Nance, a 17-year-old Eagle Scout with Troop 354, led the restoration of the map last year as his Eagle Scout project, according to MLive.com. Hager Park serves as the home park for Troop 354, and its scouts have long played an annual game across the map’s oversized states and mountain ranges, per the same report. Nance told the outlet he measured the extent of the damage by overlaying a standard U.S. map onto aerial imagery of the attraction before planning the repair work.
Years of Wear Blurred the Borders
Weather and wear had faded the map’s borders, let grass obscure its rivers, and made some sections difficult to recognize, MLive.com reported. A fundraiser organized by Nance described the damage in similar terms, noting that “the edges are overgrown, the rivers are grassy, and the borders are indistinguishable,” according to the GoFundMe campaign he launched for the project. That same fundraiser noted the map is more than 50 years old and is not in the best condition.
The campaign explained that contributions would cover materials for the Eagle Scout project as well as resources for volunteers, including canopies and water. In the end, the restoration was funded by community donations and involved more than 50 volunteers working over multiple days in the summer of 2025, MLive.com reported. Those volunteers restored the map’s borders and geographic features and cleaned up the surrounding site, while restoration funds purchased stone and landscaping materials, including limestone used to highlight the map’s lakes and waterways, per the outlet’s account.
A Park Built for Wandering
Hager Park itself is a 104-acre family park with extensive picnic areas, nature trails and a mature hardwood forest, according to Ottawa County’s park department. The relief map sits near the Age of Discovery playground, which overlooks the terrain feature, and the county notes there are no entry or launch fees to visit. The Ticket 95.3 has described the map as a place where a coast-to-coast walk is entirely possible, writing simply, “you can certainly do that here.”…