Spearheading the effort to fight the planned freeway, 35 garden clubs and 6 civic organizations formed the Park Conservation Committee. In 1966, the Shaker Lakes Garden Club formed a National Audubon Society survey of the Shaker Lakes parklands. The recommendation of the survey report was the formation of a nature center. On September 1966, the Shaker Lakes Regional Nature Center was incorporated as an independent, non-profit educational institution. Thanks to the grassroots efforts of those who fought to conserve our natural environment, formal approval for the construction of the Clark and Lee Freeways was withdrawn in 1972. This book celebrates the Nature Center's 40 years with photos and stories dating from the beginning of the anti-freeway movement to the present.