The Story of Etta S. Wilson

Esther Eliza Ma'iingan was born in 1857 in Northport, Michigan. Her father, Payson Ma'iingan, was the grandson of Odawa Chief Joseph Wakazoo and son of the medicine woman Kin-ne-quay and her husband Nayan Ma'iingan. Her mother was Mary Jane Smith, daughter of the Christian missionary, Rev. George Nelson Smith.

Etta was the third of 13 children. Due to economic hardship, three year old Etta and three of her siblings moved in with her maternal grandparents, George and Arvilla Smith who forbid them to speak their native language or practice their culture. Her father Payson left a few years later to fight in the Civil War, but Etta had her father’s mother, Kin-ne-quay, in her life who instilled in her a reverence for the natural world and the Odawa language and culture. Etta attributed these teachings from her grandmother as the source of her lifelong interest in birds and forests. (see a short biography of Kin-ne-quay written by Wilson here).

Etta attended high school in Grand Rapids and became interested in journalism. She became one of Michigan’s first female journalists and was a founding member of Michigan Women's Press Association in 1890 and Michigan Women's Press Club in 1892. At a time when women journalists were relegated to the society and fashion pages, both of these organizations advocated for women to have equal opportunities across the profession.

​Etta moved to Detroit in 1900 to write for the Detroit Journal. In 1906, she suffered paralysis of her neck from an unknown disease that made it impossible for her to use her typewriter. She turned to ornithology full-time and wrote extensively in ornithological journals and lectured for the National Audubon Society. She lived off of Joy Rd. near the western city limits at the time and frequently hiked and reported on bird sightings in the south end of Rouge Park named “The Wildwood” by the city parks department. 

She was a judge in a Detroit News sponsored birdhouse making contest for youth in 1934. She strongly supported the educational value of the contest and advocated for making the contest a yearly event (see her Letter to the Editor below). The contests did continue, for the next 30 years!

As a member of the Conservation Committee of the Louisa St. Clair Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Wilson was involved with reforestation efforts in decimated forests of northern Michigan, and she later helped develop the Wildwood Nature Trail in Rouge Park. The trail opened in May of 1935. She died less than eight months later, so she never got to see how wildly popular the trail became with the founding of the Detroit News Hiking Club the following year that went on to grow to over 8,000+ members over the next 20 years.

The Friends of Rouge Park are working hard to both restore Etta’s nature trail and the memory of her important contributions to the field of ornithology, journalism, women’s rights, forest restoration, nature education and of course, Rouge Park itself. In 2020, FORP placed a boulder and plaque at the trailhead commemorating her life and accomplishments. The Etta S. Wilson Nature Center was never completed as planned in 1936, but when a Nature Center finally is built in the park, it will certainly be named in her honor.

Read more from the Grand Rapids Historical Commission about Etta S. Wilson here