COLOMA, Mich. – A rural amusement park popular for decades in southwestern Michigan is on the auction block.
Visitors could pet animals, ride a Ferris wheel or train and listen to music at Deer Forest in Coloma. The 25-acre site in Berrien County is for sale, along with many buildings that are in rough shape but still standing.
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“Perhaps residential might make sense for whomever buys it,” said Rick Levin of Rick Levin & Associates, who is handling the sale. "I don’t know if the best use is a zoo and fun park anymore, but we’ve had a lot of people calling with their fond memories of going here.”
The suggested opening bid is $450,000, though the property had been valued at $3.2 million, Levin said.
The deadline for the sealed bid auction is 4 p.m. EDT on Oct. 14.
Cecil Potts founded the park in 1949. By 1989, more than 3.5 million people had visited Deer Forest, The Herald-Palladium reported.
It has been closed since 2014.
Rachel Edwards of Coloma fondly remembers a small red house known as Santa’s Summer Village.
“You’d go inside and imagine it was where Santa went in the summer for vacation. There was even a sleigh you could sit in. ... I know it would take a lot of work, but I would love for whomever buys it to reopen it,” Edwards told MLive.com.