Fenton — Nestled in a valley in northeastern Livingston County is an incredible garden of granite, marble, and stone built more than 90 years ago that has been sitting vacant and unspoiled ever since.
It’s Michigan’s version of Stonehenge. And here’s the thing: Almost nobody knows it’s here.
I’ve been a journalist in Livingston County for more than 40 years, and as someone who arrogantly thinks he knows everything cool that exists within his county’s borders, I only just recently heard about the Tyrone Sunken Garden.
I was one of the editors of the local newspaper (the Livingston Daily Press & Argus) for more than 25 years, and not once in all those years did we ever write about the Tyrone Sunken Garden. The last time it showed up in the paper was 1960.
If the local paper doesn’t know about you, chances are nobody does.
The story begins almost a century ago. Charles Eugene Smith was a world traveler who had always admired the natural rock gardens of Iceland and the famous sunken gardens of London and Mexico City. As he neared his 60th birthday in the early 1930s, he got it into his head that he wanted to create one of these stone marvels in his home state of Michigan.
Smith lived on a beautiful parcel of land in Tyrone Township, and he thought it would be the perfect location for his sunken garden. It was a hilly area, with a valley on the low side that had a creek running through it.
Smith himself told the story of how the Tyrone Sunken Garden came to be on an inscription that’s etched into one of the pieces of granite there:
“After having traveled around the world four different times and visited parts of Europe, Asia, North America, South America, North and South Africa, Australia and the islands of New Zealand, Tasmania, St. Helena, Canary, Fiji, Ceylon, Iceland, Hawaii, Philippine, New Foundland, Faeroe and many others and considering the famous rock gardens of Iceland and the sunken gardens of London, England, and Mexico City the most beautiful I contribute this memorial in my memory to this small garden.”
He spent the next decade or so traveling all over, collecting pieces of granite and marble for his garden. Each stone has something etched into it—either the state name and motto of each piece, or a pithy saying that Smith came up with himself. The rim of the bicycle wheel is made up of all the state stones—one from each of the 48 states that existed in the 1930s, and some weighing 10 tons or more.
In the center of the bicycle wheel is a marble sundial, although the sundial itself is long gone. At each end is a huge granite arch. Back in the day, there was a bell on each arch that a couple would ring when they got married there (the Tyrone Sunken Garden hosted countless weddings).
The biggest piece of granite in the garden is a distance wheel that shows how far Tyrone Township is from various cities in the world.
A 1937 story in the Flint Journal, just as Smith was wrapping up work on his project, said, “Mr. Smith, who lives alone on his farm, has done all the work on the project. It is his ambition to have his gardens rival in beauty those he has seen in different parts of the world.”
It would seem he achieved that goal.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Smith’s sunken garden hosted countless visitors. He welcomed everyone to stop by and made it available for weddings, family reunions, birthday parties, and more. People came from all over the Midwest to visit the Tyrone Sunken Garden.
Smith died in 1949, and the land was sold to Basil Beck, a retired GM executive. He turned it into a true tourist attraction, adding a playground, petting zoo, and nine-hole golf course. There were peacocks roaming the grounds and a little train that carried families around the site.
When Beck died in 1968, though, the property was sold to a cemetery and gravestone company from Fenton, and that’s when the crowds stopped coming. They turned the land on the high side into a cemetery—it’s one of the newer cemeteries in Michigan—and left the sunken garden in the valley just as it was.
That’s how it’s been ever since. The cemetery owners didn’t want to do anything to disturb the garden, but they didn’t want to maintain it, either. So it’s just been sitting there for decades—unmarked, overgrown, and frozen in time.
But here’s the good news: You can visit it anytime you want. It’s time to unhide this hidden gem.
As Smith himself inscribed above the West Gate: “Pilgrim, as you enter this Western Gate, smile. The beauties within are yours to enjoy, just as freely as the Rose of Sharon and the sparkle of the dew drops in God’s bright sunshine.”
Directions to the Tyrone Sunken Garden
It’s located off White Lake Road, about a half-mile west of U.S. 23. Just type “Sunken Garden Cemetery, Fenton” into your Maps app, and it’ll take you right to the site.
Once you’re in the cemetery, look for a flagstone garden on the east side. Just to the east of that, you’ll see an unmarked gate leading to a trail. Walk down the trail, cross the little bridge over the creek, and you’re there.
Buddy Moorehouse teaches documentary filmmaking at Hillsdale College.
