History of the Park through News Articles
Traverse City Record Eagle 1998
This should be the time of year when folks who own summer tourist attractions work their hardest.Not so with Brian Johnson, the caretaker for Johnny’s Wild Game and fish Park, southwest of Cadillac.During the summer season, he hires several high school and college students to help him take care of the deer, goats, buffalo and dozens of other game, farm and exotic animals and birds.“Now, I can take care of some maintenance,” Johnson said. “And we can get away a little bit.”Johnny’s is an off-beat petting zoo set off the beaten path and surrounded by woods. There’s a stocked trout pond, 10-cent feeding machines and a goat who crosses a bridge and pulls a pan up to his perch by a line when people put handfuls of corn in it.Traverse City Record Eagle
Sunday July 10, 1994
Northern LivingJOHNNY’S PARK NEAR CADILLAC PROVIDES HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE
You know you’re onto something good the second you spot the humble, hand-lettered sign at the intersection of two soggy dirt roads.
Johnny’s Park.
The road doesn’t look promising, but curiosity eclipses concern over your car’s worn shocks. Who’s Johnny?
You find the park, but not the man.
Herbert “Johnny” Johnson died years ago, not too long after establishing this petting zoo of exotic and not-so-exotic animals officially known as Johnny’s Wild Game and fish Park.
Cadillac News 1980
THE MISSING LINK, JOHNNY’S GAME PARK OPENS AGAIN
“Zoos are nice, but an animal habitat like Johnny’s gives children—and adults—a chance to experience wildlife.”
It is, one exhilarated adult said, the missing like—that very delicate, but oft missing connection, between man and nature.
Johnny’s Wild Game and Fish Park, located five miles southwest of Cadillac, is unique in that it is a wildlife, fish and fowl sanctuary in which people mingle with the animals.
The popular northern Michigan tourist attraction recently open its’ doors for its’ 16th season.
“We camp in this area every year,” said Larry Fitzsimons, of Toledo, Ohio. “Oh, sometimes we go up as far as the Straits, but where ever we camp we always make it a point to stop in here at Johnny’s.
Cadillac Evening News
August 3, 1973Johnny’s Game and Fish Park
A WALK WITH THE ANIMALS
Johnny’s Wild Game and Fish Park isn’t a zoo, park or preserve. It’s a philosophy.
“I’m trying to do something different,” owner and manager Mrs. Ruth Johnson says. “We want children to feed, touch and learn to know the animals.”
That was the plan when the park was initiated by her husband, Herb, about seven years ago. Herb died two and one half years ago, but Mrs. Johnson, a former teacher, has never considered selling the property.
“As long as I feel good, it certainly beats selling underwear,” she laughed. “I don’t want to go back to teaching. This is really satisfying work. And people tell you when they enjoy the park.”
Manton Tribune-Record, Manton
September 20, 1967
A big attraction –
JOHNNY’S WILD GAME AND FISH PARK
It was on Tuesday, September 13, 1966, when TV commentator Ron Gamble featured in south and movie at 7:00 p.m. on Detroit Channel 4, a Cadillac Area outdoor attraction.
Johnny’s Wild Game and Fish Park had come into its own, a place where grown-ups and kiddies could enjoy and make acquaintance with the wonderful world of domestic and wild life animals. It was a serene and well-documented story, which unfolded a “paradise” hidden in a wooded area, a five-minute drive from Cadillac.