Rayner Park History
Rayner Woodlot was once covered by ice during the Pleistocene Ice Age. About 4000 years after the glacier began to retreat, the southern part of Michigan was occupied by complex pine and hardwood forests on the uplands (i.e. Rayner Woodlot), and about 3500 years ago these forests began to look more similar to modern forests in the area. Paleo-Indian people occupied these areas as long as the vegetation communities that replaced the glacier and culturally evolved into native tribes that used and depended on the forests for life requirements. These peoples (mostly Ojibwe, Odawa, and Bodewademi) also cleared land for agriculture, sometimes setting fires that burned across the region. The land that is now Rayner Woodlot was undoubtedly used and influenced by the native tribes that once inhabited the wild lands of Michigan prior to their decimation by European settlers who began moving into the state in the early 19th century.
Around 1800, what is now Vevay Township in Ingham County, Michigan, was predominantly beech-sugar maple forest and oak-hickory forest, with some mixed hardwood and mixed conifer swamps. What is now Rayner Park was once dominated by beech-maple forest. The region was largely forested, which attracted settlers to Mason village for its abundant timber.
In about 1837, John Rayner visited Michigan from New York and began purchasing large tracts of land in Ingham County including what is now Rayner Park. Later, in 1840, Rayner settled in Mason with his wife and three children. Rayner farmed and speculated in land to a large extent and left a large amount of property to his family when he died in 1879.
Field research at the Ingham County Register of Deeds revealed the Rayner property's ownership transitions. The property passed to William H. Rayner and he and his wife who owned it in 1890.
After William Rayner sold the property to James W. Dyer in 1900, the property changed hands several times. Finally, on January 4, 1931, Frank W. Dakin and his wife sold the property to the Ingham County Board of Road Commissioners. On June 26, 1944 the property changed hands from the Ingham County Board of Road Commissioners to Ingham County, the new home for county parks management.
Rayner Park is now managed by Ingham County Parks and its open fields, ponds, and mature woodlot are available to the public for recreation and enjoyment.