80-Acre Warren Park with a Shadow Figure on the Road
3001 13 Mile Rd, Warren, MI 48092
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public city park.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved paths and open parkland; some natural terrain areas
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1956 · Warren City History · German Immigration Michigan · Macomb County Parks · Norman J. Halmich Legacy
The Halmich family emigrated from Germany to America in 1851 and established several farms in and around Warren Township. The largest portion of what is now Halmich Park was a cattle operation owned by the Charles Halmich family. The land remained in agricultural use through the mid-twentieth century.
In 1956, Warren Township purchased the property to develop it as a public park, pre-empting a proposal from the City of Detroit to establish an airport on the site. The acquisition effectively preserved 80 acres of open space in what was becoming an increasingly dense suburban county.
The park's namesake, Norman J. Halmich, was a prominent figure in Warren's civic life. He served as postmaster, village president, and storekeeper, and was reportedly the first commercial sod farmer in the area. In 1945, as a member of St. Anne's Parish, he donated 10 acres of his property on Mound Road for the future parish.
Today the park includes playgrounds, walking trails, picnic areas, and recreational facilities. It serves as the venue for the Warren Lions City Fair and other community events. A historical marker on the grounds documents the Halmich family's role in the area's development.
Sources
The account associated with Halmich Park has been reported in consistent terms across multiple witnesses. The scenario begins the same way each time: a car driving through the park at night brakes hard after what feels and sounds like a collision. The driver or passengers get out to check for damage or a victim. The road is empty.
From the direction of the picnic tables — toward the center of the park — a large black figure appears, running toward the stopped vehicle and screaming. The figure closes the distance fast enough that getting back in the car feels urgent. One detailed account describes the group scrambling back in and locking the doors, at which point the figure was still roughly 100 feet away — too far to have been what the car initially struck.
In the same account, after the doors were locked, the car began being struck from the roof — hands pounding on metal in a sustained way, not an impact and silence but a prolonged battering lasting approximately 30 seconds. When the noise stopped, the witnesses looked ahead and found a car parked in the road ahead of them that had not been there before. Its tail lights were visible. Then the car was gone. The black figure was also gone.
No formal investigation or historical incident that might explain the account was found in available records. The picnic table area of the park, which features in multiple tellings as the point from which the figure emerges, occupies the approximate center of the grounds.
Walk the 80-acre park along 13 Mile Road at Ryan Road. The paranormal account centers on the road and picnic area near the center of the park, where a large black figure has been reported running toward vehicles that have stopped after apparently hitting something — a phenomenon multiple witnesses have described in consistent terms.
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