Slayton Arboretum

Slayton Arboretum, 14 acres (5.7 hectares), is an arboretum located adjacent to the campus of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan. It is privately owned but open to the public. Although the site's use by the College students dates back to at least the 1860s, the Arboretum began in 1922 when Mr. and Mrs. George A. Slayton donated 14 acres (5.7 hectares) to Hillsdale College. By 1924, the first donated plantings were in place, led by Professor Bertram A. Barber. A pond was excavated in 1928, and a field station, a hillside rock garden, waterfall, and pump house were added in 1929. In the early 1930s two bridges were added, and an amphitheater built in the late 1930s on the site of a former gravel pit. On October 17, 1999 the Arboretum was the site of a suicide or murder when Lissa Jackson Roche, the managing editor of Hillsdale College Press, was found dead of a gunshot wound after claiming that she and her father-in-law, the college's president, had been involved in a nineteen-year extramarital affair. The initial period of development of Slayton Arboretum under Professor Barber resulted in an intimate botanical garden much loved by students and alumni of Hillsdale College as well as the residents of Hillsdale. It was the focal point for student outdoor activity in biology and ecology. The rock gardens, waterfalls, gazebos, amphitheater and rustic cement bridges have survi

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