Water Warrior Island is taking the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to court, claiming state-backed construction work at the Lower Trout Lake day-use area effectively torpedoed its entire 2025 season. The floating water park’s owners say they pumped six figures into the island, then watched hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential sales evaporate when their planned operations were thrown off schedule. A lawsuit filed earlier this year asks a judge to award damages for those losses.
Owners say state work wiped out their season
In a February complaint, owner Aaron Fulton and his partners argue that the DNR’s construction timeline and on-site changes made it impossible to properly staff and operate Water Warrior Island in 2025, leaving too little runway to open. The filing details investment numbers and operating costs, the owners say, that were directly tied to the state’s schedule. The DNR has told reporters it will not comment on pending litigation. According to MLive, the lawsuit names the Michigan Department of Natural Resources as the defendant and lays out a step-by-step timeline of the work and approvals the owners say led to the shutdown.
Park backstory: a 30-foot 'Whoa' slide and state rules
Water Warrior Island operated as a private attraction inside Bald Mountain Recreation Area’s Lower Trout Lake day-use area, offering floating obstacle courses, rentals, and a 30-foot launch slide added in 2023. Visitors needed a Michigan Recreation Passport to enter, and the park marketed both all-day passes and shorter sessions for families. As reported by WXYZ, the 30-foot launch slide quickly became the headline draw when the island opened.
How much the owners say is at stake
In court papers, the owners say they invested about $400,000 into the state-park site and spent close to $150,000 on insurance, advertising and system upgrades, only to be sidelined for the entire 2025 season. They estimate that the lost season cost around $300,000 in revenue. The complaint also says removing the 30-foot launch slide alone would top $70,000 and notes a certificate of occupancy for the Lower Trout Lake day-use area was not issued until June 26, 2025. As additional context, the filings point to a roughly $3.9 million DNR renovation of the concessions building that started in 2024 and, according to MLive, those figures sit at the heart of the park’s damages claim.
What comes next
The case now heads into the usual civil-litigation grind. The DNR can formally answer the complaint, and if it moves forward, both sides will exchange documents and take testimony during discovery. Beyond the dollars on the table, the lawsuit highlights the tension that can flare when private operators and the state try to juggle construction schedules and reopening plans at shared park sites. For now, the owners are asking to be paid back for what they describe as lost revenue and sunk costs, while the DNR has stayed silent on the specifics, citing the ongoing lawsuit.
