Solving the Mystery of Monkey Island!


Many years ago, a friend told me about a place in a local park, called Monkey Island. I thought maybe he was pulling my leg, because I had never, ever heard anyone else mention it (unlike the amusement park at Vandercook Lake!)

I repeated the story of Monkey Island to Erica, who seemed to think it was one of the "coolest things ever", and that Jackson "has been going downhill" ever since they decided to close the wonderful Monkey Island.

My understanding of the location of Monkey Island was that it was located inside Sharp Park. Being an 'island' I assumed, or perhaps was told, that it was located 'on' the Grand River, which runs through the park.

There is a 'roadway' that is always blocked off, that seemed like a possible candidate for the access back to where the mysterious Monkey Island might have possibly been located. Recently, Erica and I walked down the roadway, and discovered a large paintball battlefield and several bike paths, but no indication of Monkey Island. Although to be fair, we never did approach the river.

Erica was more determined than ever, to get to the bottom of the Legend of Monkey Island, and I was worried about her being disappointed, so I tried to discourage her search and to lower her expectations. However, she was not to be dissuaded. She conducted an internet search and danged if she didn't find a wonderful story on the internet by a Robert Coller talking about how he played in and around the ruins of Monkey Island! I have included his 'story' from his webpage at the conclusion of my tale! Thank you Mr. Coller!

Anyhow, Erica was excited to find some independent information about the pinnacle of Jackson's greatness! Although, we were still a little skeptical, keeping in mind you can't believe EVERYTHING you read on the internet. Erica insisted we venture down to the library to do some further research and see if we couldn't find a more authoritative source. (No offense meant to Mr. Coller)

Of course, upon arriving at the Library, all the computers are 'down' and we are unable to use the card catalog to do any research. So we end up wandering aimlessly in the resource room hoping to stumble upon a section on Jackson History. However this was a fruitless search, and finally after much cajoling, Erica convinces me to approach the Reference Librarians and pose our inquiry to them!

After getting the attention of these wonderful, but stereotypical librarians, I recited my understanding of the "Tale of Monkey Island". One of the librarians laughs because she thinks it is a fraud, but the other… she says "Wait… I think someone else one time asked this question…but I can't recall what we ever discovered, if anything!"

So they discuss various methods of research and decide to allow Erica and I back into the "historical room" of the library, the 'special' room, all enclosed in glass and used by serious scholars! We all go back into the room, and the librarians (both of them) are as curious as we are, and they begin pulling out newspaper clipping folders. The first one being on The Michigan Zoo, that was located in the Sharp Park.

It seemed like a pretty successful zoo, after a rough beginning. It was started in 1930 apparently, but plans to expand it were abandoned in 1932 due to the Depression. The paper mentioned increasing attendance each year in one of the clippings. It seems to have had 2 deer, 2 black bears, 1 Kodiak bear and 'several' ducks. After languishing for 20 some years, and the gradual deterioration of the cages and buildings (dilapidated was the description in the paper!) an expansion and renewal effort was undertaken. The Kodiak bear was put to sleep and buried in an unmarked grave, somewhere in the park, after living at the zoo for 25 years. According to the paper, the entire park was then to be considered a momument to the bear, that so many children loved.

They built pens for lions and tigers and cement Monkey Island! It was modeled after the Toledo Zoological Park. The park spent about $50, 000 on the enclosures and local school kids helped raised money. Jackson High School put on an Opera and Vandercook kids also raised $180.

However, another recession came and despite the fund raising events by area schools the zoo was abandoned without ever having more animals inhabit the zoo! Thus even the cement Monkey Island, with its moats, tunnels and ledges never had any monkeys. Although local kids seem to have played there.

Here is Mr. Robert Coller's story. His webpage is at

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The Monkey Island



The neighborhood was built on the first section of undeveloped land just south of Jackson, Michigan. To the northeast was the southern boundary of "Ella Sharp Park", Ella Sharp had given the land, several hundred acres, to the city to utilize as a park, and much of it had been developed over the years. Rose gardens, baseball fields, picnic areas, all well used by families on a year-round basis.

But the best part of "Sharp Park" was along the edge that bordered our neighborhood. That section of the park was little used, overgrown and somewhat forgotten. And in that part of the park, sometime during it's evolution, someone had thought it would be intertwining to have a "Monkey Island" within the park.

You've all seen a "Monkey Island", it was one of those massive concrete structures, surrounded by a moat, that they keep the monkeys in at every zoo in the country. (You would recognize it at the zoo by the comments made by the people standing around it: "Don't they look just like little people!", and "Look at the little baby monkey!", and, usually from someone's mother, "What IS that animal doing?!") And this one was a classic, with entrances, and caves, and cliffs, and ledges, and peaks, and cages, inside there were cages.

I can't remember the first time we discovered it, but I'm sure that none of our mothers said "Here, boys, I've got a great place for you to play." Not about "Monkey Island" they didn't, it would have placed about second on their lists of places forbidden to young boys (First place would have gone to the old swimming pool, if they had only known about it.)

It sort of seemed like we were the only ones that knew it was there. It was stuck back in a grove of trees in an unused, unmowed section of the park, the amazing thing was that no-one ever told us to "Get out of there, you kids!", or "Don't you kids go near that old 'Monkey Island'.", or "And what were you doing there in the first place?". No-one saw us there, no-one knew we went there, and no-one told us not to go back. So we did.

The first visits consisted of standing in the weeds around the outside of the moat, speculating about what this pile of cement was for. Eventually someone found the door, or, where the door should have been but wasn't anymore.

Now, the moat was an imposing barrier up to that point, we knew we could get down in, all that involved was sliding down the side, but we weren't sure that our "Keds" had enough traction to get us back up to the top. The door was like an portal into a million fantasies.

Up to our discovery of "Monkey Island" our fantasies had been limited by our environment, up to then when we needed a "cave" we used an old appliance box, and when we needed a "jail" we used the nearest closet. Now we had real caves, and jails, and mountains, and moats, we were no longer limited by reality.

As you entered the interior of "Monkey Island" you entered a room about fifteen feet by thirty feet, on the left were a row of three cages with doors opening into the interior, and each had an entrance out to the island. But the best part was not in the original design, someone had discovered the island before we had, and left us a legacy, a hole in the concrete.

Those imposing looking structures at the zoo always looked like solid concrete, we didn't know until then that those walls were hollow. Even the wall of the moat was hollow, and, once someone had broken through the concrete, we could get "inside" the inside. In mid-Michigan, this was the closest you could get to "splunking", the only other caves we had ever seen we had dug ourselves in the cliff at the gravel pit.

Once you entered the hole you encountered a boy sized tunnel leading in both directions. The walls of the tunnel were constructed of one inch thick concrete supported by steel retaining rods. Through the years various "windows" had been broken through the concrete. Except where the entrance hole was the retaining rods were too close together to allow entrance or exit from the tunnels, so once you were in, you were in.

Our first explorations were the most exciting, wherever there was a peak or a ledge there was another branch in the tunnel. Would we get lost? Would we ever find our way out? Those are the questions that drove us deeper and deeper, exploring all the branches, creating monsters and enemies and alternative realities as we went.

Over the years "Monkey Island" provided the backdrop for landings at Inchon, the rescuing of stranded maidens, and the defeat of attacking aliens. And we survived it all.

As for our mothers, I think that's where the old cliche came from: "What they don't know, won't hurt them."

©Robert Coller, 1996

If you would like to try to locate Monkey Island. Click Here to see an aerial photo of the Sharp Park Area. The area is indicated by the "push pin" according to my source. (Thanks again to Mr. Robert Coller)

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