Eau Claire — With acres of flora and fauna along the St. Joseph River, the beauty of Coulston’s Cove Nature Preserve draws visitors from several states.
There’s just one problem. It doesn’t exist.
Despite being listed on Google Maps, the supposed wildlife sanctuary in southwest Michigan is just a residential neighborhood, a few scattered homes surrounded by woods.
Nature lovers wander through people’s yards, looking for a refuge that is imaginary. The trespassing has irritated homeowners for a decade.
Thanks to an angry property owner, however, salvation might be near.
Sean Dorstewitz, who owns a vacant lot nearby, berated one of the visitors and posted a TikTok video of the encounter that went viral.
“Yes, I blew up at the guy and will blow up at the next guy,” Dorstewitz told The Detroit News. “I’ve had it. I just won’t tolerate it.”
Many viewers empathized with the visitor and criticized Dorstewitz, who ignored several apologies by the interloper.
But Dorstewitz might have the last laugh. After The News began looking into the viral video, Google removed the nature preserve from its online map.
Google didn’t respond to several requests for comment.
Besides no sanctuary, there is no cove named Coulston and, in fact, no cove at all. But there is a Coulston, which is where our story begins.
How Coulston Cove became an imaginary nature preserve
Mark Coulston is a former Berrien Township trustee who was a bailiff in Berrien County District Court for 32 years. He is an avid outdoorsman with a puckish sense of humor.
He lived along the St. Joseph River and dubbed his fishing hole Coulston’s Cove. It’s not a cove but a bend in the waterway. Locals call it Angry Man’s Turn, which, given what transpired, may be a more fitting name.
Coulston, 70, went a step further in 2016 and pinned the location on Google Maps, identifying it as a nature preserve. He said it was private property, but people could visit if they called first.
He told The News he had just two visitors. A guy from Holland (the city, not the region) came once a year for five years, bringing two sons, who explored the woods and splashed about in a nearby creek.
The other guest, from South Bend, Indiana, brought his nephew a few times, and they fished in the river.
Coulston didn’t charge them.
“It was a good-natured way to let people know if they want to fish or explore, they could,” he said. “I was trying to be a good neighbor and think I was a good neighbor.”
But Coulston wasn’t the only one entertaining visitors.
One of his neighbors told him someone came to the neighbor’s home looking for the nature preserve. The neighbor, who didn’t know anything about it, told the visitor to buzz off.
When it happened again, the neighbor asked Coulston to remove the site from Google Maps. He did so, or thought he had, but it was still there a year or two later. He made a more concerted effort and removed the listing, he said.
When The News was working on this article, however, the nature preserve was still on the online map last month.
Nonexistent nature preserve sits near Muhammad Ali’s former estate
Coulston Cove might be the prettiest nature preserve that never existed.
It sits across the St. Joseph River from the former estate of boxing champ Muhammad Ali. The 81-acre property boasts ponds, gardens and a forest.
On Coulston’s side of the river, a dirt road goes into dense woods for half a mile, threading walls of oak and maple trees before ending at the waterway. Deer and turkeys forage among the foliage.
“It’s a slice of heaven,” said Maria Doyle, whose mother lives among the splendor. “It’s so peaceful, calming to walk to the river.”
The beginning of the dirt road, which is private, has no signs for a wildlife sanctuary.
Instead, a cluster of mailboxes sits near an American flag waving from a flagpole. A sign attached to two logs reads, “Private Property/ No ATVs.”
Residents said they’re tired of befuddled visitors looking for something that doesn’t exist. They park in their driveways, roam through their yards and even knock on their doors.
Kurt Schacknies, who lives on the river, said it doesn’t happen every day but occurs enough to be a nuisance. It’s been happening on and off for a decade, he said.
Like Dorstewitz, Schacknies said he is ready to prosecute the visitors for trespassing.
“I don’t want anyone back here,” he said. “This is private property. Has been for 70 years.”
He said Coulston owned just a sliver of riverfront property, while he owns 600 feet of frontage.
Doyle said it’s scary for her mom to look out her picture window and see unexpected company arriving.
“It’s upsetting,” she said. “I don’t know what they’re looking for. She’s the only thing back here.”
A video confrontation with an alleged trespasser goes viral
A man was looking for the nature preserve in 2022 when he was confronted by Dorstewitz.
“You’re trespassing on private property,” Dorstewitz told the man. “I’m sick and tired of people looking for that thing. It doesn’t exist.”
The man tried to apologize, but Dorstewitz cut him off, according to his viral TikTok video of the encounter.
“The next person who comes on my property, I’m prosecuting,” he said.
Dorstewitz, 56, who was sitting in his pickup, got out to record the man’s Michigan license plate, saying his attorney had told him to do so with visitors.
“The last thing I wanted to do,” said the man, raising his hands in surrender. “It’s on the internet as a…”
“Yeah, I know, and Mark Coulston doesn’t own it and never has,” Dorstewitz told the stranger.
Dorstewitz, who had recently bought the property, wasn’t just angry about encroaching nature lovers.
He was also fighting with neighbors over an easement unrelated to the fake sanctuary. He accused them of crossing his property to reach their own.
He filed a trespassing complaint against Coulston after they first met in 2022. Coulston was plowing snow from his ex-wife’s property to the street, and Dorstewitz accused him of entering his property. (Coulston had lived there until the divorce.)
“I don’t know what his deal is,” Coulston said. “He definitely has an anti-social angle to him.”
How the nature preserve feud escalated
Dorstewitz didn’t post the 2022 video until April of this year, when he included it among a batch of other clips he put on TikTok.
He said he wanted to draw attention to the trespassing. The caption of the video read, “You people started this and I’m gonna finish it.”
Other clips accused neighbors, ATV riders and a road crew of entering his property illegally. In one clip, Dorstewitz responded to an accusation by the road crew by saying he hadn’t had a drink in a month.
The videos also described a zoning dispute he’s having with a township ordinance enforcement officer, whom he also accused of trespassing.
“I caught him snooping around (a neighbor’s) property to video my property,” Dorstewitz told The News. “He went past three no trespassing signs.”
Dorstewitz placed 11 cameras in his wooded lot, with one 30 feet up a tree, which allows him to keep an eye on the other cameras.
He doesn’t live there but bought the six-acre plot in 2022, hoping to build four cabins that could be rented out. The plans are on hold.
The video of Dorstewitz scolding the nature lover has been viewed 1.7 million times. Few viewers felt sorry for him.
Instead, they joked about making reservations at the fake wildlife sanctuary. Others left reviews on the Google Maps listing.
When one of Dorstewitz’s videos showed a bald eagle in his woods, one viewer asked if it was guilty of trespassing.
Despite the teasing, Dorstewitz said he was pleased his gripes against the township and trespassers were getting more attention.
“It shows people you can stand up for yourself,” he said. “You don’t have to be a victim your whole life. Stop being scared of the powers to be. They’re not that powerful.”
Neighbors briefly reconcile
It may strike some as ironic that neither the creator of Coulston’s Cove nor its biggest critic lives near the imaginary nature preserve.
Even more surprisingly, the two men supposedly mended fences last year.
Dorstewitz described it, like he does most things nowadays, through a TikTok video.
“Mark Coulston, Sean Dorstewitz: Two people, when they butted heads, they weren’t gonna stop,” he intoned. “Both of them stubborn, both of them clever, both of them trying to outwit the other.”
Dorstewitz said he saw Coulston putting up no trespassing signs on his ex-wife’s property and, worried about his health, offered to help, according to the video.
“As much as I don’t like him, I’m gonna have to go over there and help him,” he said.
After Coulston accepted the offer, Dorstewitz grabbed his screw gun and a handful of screws.
He also brought an olive branch.
“Hey, before I even get started,” he told Coulston, “this thing we got between us. It isn’t healthy. I don’t like it, and I’m sure you don’t, either.”
When Coulston agreed, Dorstewitz reached out his hand and introduced himself by name, although the men already knew each other. Coulston did the same, and they shook hands.
The detente, however, didn’t last long.
Dorstewitz told The News that Coulston was target shooting on his ex-wife’s property six months later, and he could tell by the sound that the shots were fired in the direction of his property.
He filed a harassment complaint with the township.
Coulston said Dorstewitz was exaggerating everything: the bad blood, the reconciliation, the firearm firing.
“He’s a difficult guy,” Coulston said.
fdonnelly@detroitnews.com
(313) 223-4186
@prima_donnelly
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Southwest Michigan home to prettiest nature preserve that never existed
Reporting by Francis X. Donnelly, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Francis X. Donnelly, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
