By Anita Weier
Friends of Lake View Hill Park

You may have already hiked through the Cherokee Marsh or Wild Warner Park, but there is another local woods offering the peace and solitude of nature — the pleasant Lake View Hill Park woods behind the Dane County Human Services Building at 1202 Northport Drive.

Decades ago, this woods provided walking trails for patients of a tuberculosis sanatorium before it closed in the late1960s and was converted into offices by Dane County. You can catch sight of landmarks such as the foundation to the sanatorium’s old pig farm, which with gardens supplemented the patients’ diet. You will also walk by the new water tower that replaced an aging one that held too little water for our area.

If you venture to the front lawn of the Human Services Building, you could bring a sled and join the children making use of the big hill with its view of Lake Mendota. You can also see the memorial to what was the nurses’ dormitory for the sanatorium, although that is still a work in progress. Historic panels will be installed soon to help tell the story of this unique park.

The entire 27-acre site surrounding the Human Services Building has been turned into a county conservancy park, and dozens of volunteers have worked to bring back native plants and remove invasives. Critters such as foxes, coyotes, woodpeckers, owls and deer hang out there.

This is a beautiful place to walk in any weather, but winter can be a special season for a walk in the woods.