Michigan in early springtime can be rather gray and gloomy with brown grass and bare trees. I needed to get away so I headed to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower. No not the one in France but the one in Michigan a few miles north of Big Rapids. John Parish arrived in the area in the 1850s and platted the village in 1865. It was at first named “Parish” after him, but the name later became Paris.
The County park in Paris was the site of the second fish hatchery in the state of Michigan. The Paris Fish Hatchery opened in 1881, and from 1913 to 1938, salmon and brown trout fingerlings were shipped in trains in milk cans painted a distinctive red color. The hatchery operated until 1964. in 1972 it was acquired by the Mecosta County Park Commission and the land converted into a park. In 1980, Using old bed frames stored in one of the buildings, welding students from the Mecosta-Osceola Career Center in Big Rapids built the 20-foot-tall replica of the Eiffel Tower.
If you want to get away to see the Eiffel Tower and you can’t afford to travel to France, be sure to check out the replica in Paris, Michigan.
P.S. behind the tower is a trout pond. It was closed when I was there, but I will have to go back when it is open and the grass is green.
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