It is situated directly north of the city of East Lansing.

Park Lake at the southern edge of the township was the source of the Park Lake Trail, an important Native American trailway that intersected the Okemah Trail in what later became the city of East Lansing, Michigan.

By the early 1900s Park Lake was surrounded by summer camps affiliated with various churches and associations as well as seasonal cabins and lodges.

The most ambitious of these was the Park Lake Resort which featured a large dance pavilion built on pilings over the water.

The Park Lake Dance Pavilion served as an entertainment venue playing host to many famous acts such as Tommy Dorsey until it burned in the 1930s.

It claimed more than three times as many victims as the Columbine High School massacre and twice as many victims as the Virginia Tech and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings.