5 Things You May Not Know About Sylvan Lake History

Sylvan Lake residents gathered Thursday evening to enjoy an ice cream social and dedication of wayside signs that help tell the community's history as it relates to the automotive and labor industries. 

Here are five facts you can learn from just one of those signs, which is posted near the entrance of the Community Center:

1. The Detroit Free Press has close ties to Sylvan Lake. The newspaper once owned the property upon which the Community Center now stands. 
2. The newspaper established a Fresh Air camp for underprivileged children on the property in 1906. 
3. The camp was, at first, only open to boys. Girls joined three years later. 
4. The Free Press encouraged kids to donate a nickel to "send a poor child to camp". 
5. The camp closed in 1962, and the property was sold to Sylvan Lake.