Picture

View southwest from atop Tranquil Ridge Sanctuary with Brooks Lake in the background.

The TLC purchased the 0.45-acre Tranquil Ridge Sanctuary located along Lake George Road near the Oakland County border in Dryden Township, Lapeer County. The Sanctuary is located on top of a narrow ridge along the east edge of a huge forested valley, nearly 1 mile across and 2 miles long, with a series of lakes and wetlands at the bottom. This impressive ice-contact landscape formed as retreating glaciers left massive ice fragments across the interlobate region. These large ice blocks, surrounded by outwash deposits. melted away, leaving steep embankments around a depressions full of meltwater known as a kettle lakes.

Tranquil Ridge Sanctuary is covered by a dry-mesic forest community of Black Oak, White Oak, Black Cherry, Big-tooth Aspen, and Sugar Maple. The Sanctuary is located in a relatively untouched natural area, but there was an old cottage on the adjacent property years ago, part of an Ford Motor employee retreat that was later used as a music camp. Limited soil disturbance allowed invasive plants like Black Locust, honeysuckle, and privet to spread onto what would become the Sanctuary.

Although the Tranquil Ridge Sanctuary is a very small property, it is part of a much larger natural area, largely covered by mature oak forest. Not only is it an interesting and uncommon glacial landscape in Michigan, but it is very scenic and largely undeveloped and forested due to the extreme slopes. Future development of the area is most likely to be limited to very disperse single-family residences. For now, you can sit on one of the boulders on top of the ridge and look out over the valley with Brooks Lake shining below and feel the solitude.