Mary Ellsworth was a naturalist and historian at the Nankin Mills Nature Center in Westland, Michigan. After receiving her degree in Natural Science from Michigan State University in the mid-1950s, she worked for a time at the Cranbrook Institute of Science. In 1956, she was approached about a job to develop an interpretive nature center as part of the Middle Rouge Parkway in Wayne County. The location for the center was to be Nankin Mills, a site once occupied by two grist mills. The earliest of the mills was built between 1835 and 1842. A second mill was constructed soon after the Civil War. In 1918, Henry Ford purchased this mill as part of his plan to develop village mill industries along the Rouge River. After Henry Ford's death in 1947, the mill was given to the county and in 1956, the property was designated a nature center where school groups could learn about the area and take walks through the surrounding William P. Holliday Forest and Wildlife Preserve. The nature center was never adequately funded, and despite Ellsworth's best efforts, it closed in 1979 for budgetary reasons.
From the guide to the Mary Ellsworth papers, circa 1880-1983, (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan)
