For many years, the German American Culture Center rented Swiss Valley Park on the second Saturday and Sunday in August for their "Deutscher Tag"  celebration.

Swiss Valley Park was opened in 1921 by "Cass" Ochylski on 37 picturesque acres along the Clinton River that he acquired from Delbert Ladd. A Detroit butcher, Ochylski dreamed of opening a park and wildlife preserve for his children and other Detroit-area families.

From 1921 - 1928, Ochylski ran and developed the location, but he tragically died on July 4, 1928, of wounds sustained when two robbers held him up and robbed his butcher shop in Detroit. The park fell back into Bert Ladd's possession after the season because the Ochylski's could no longer make the payments and remained that way until 1933 when Joe May signed a lease with Ladd and managed the park for a year. After a few slow seasons, Joe Godzisz became the park's sole owner and operated it along with his wife and son, Ted Godzisz. When Joe died in 1950, Ted became the business manager, and his mother remained the operations manager. The Godzisz's continued running the park until 1974 when Ted and his wife decided to sell the park. The MDNR bought it off of them in a matter of days and quickly tore down all of the park's facilities and closed it to the public since the area was beginning to get contaminated because of nearby landfill sites.

While Swiss Valley Park was in operation, it had several facilities and accommodations over the years for visitors. Cass Ochylski originally built a concession stand, dance hall, and a hundred picnic tables. Future owners continued to add on to this in addition to maintaining and repairing the original structures. He even sold bootleg whiskey from the park during Prohibition, cutting it 15% by adding water since it was 180 proof and adding tea or burnt sugar to make it look more like whiskey. Joe May wired all of the buildings for electricity in the single year he leased it, and the Godzisz's later added more tables and repaired and expanded the dance floor. While Ted Godzisz was still a senior in high school, he packed broken slabs of concrete along the Clinton River to prevent riverbank erosion.

Admission at Swiss Valley Park ranged from 25 cents to 50 cents per person through the years, and at its peak, could be rented for $500 on Saturdays and $100 on Sundays. Some gatherings saw crowds as large as 2,000 - 3,000 people. The most frequent visitors were German families and groups such as the German American Culture Center. The GACC rented the park for many years on the second Saturday and Sunday in August for their "Deutscher Tag"  or German Day, which usually hosted many Detroit-area German clubs. Belgian and Polish groups also visited the park, and Michigan Governor William Milliken was sometimes known to visit and join the ethnic picnics.

Although the park facilities are gone, and the park closed in a poor environmental condition, Swiss Valley Park's story has ultimately had a happy ending. In 2001 the superfund site was declared free of contaminants by the EPA as part of the 200-acre Holland Ponds project and is now a part of the beautiful Holland Ponds park.

If you would like to learn more about historic Shelby Township river parks, read Wally Doebler's "Summer Along the Clinton: A History of the Clinton River Parks."