Cross in the Woods Catholic Shrine of Indian River — Attraction in Tuscarora Township

I am not religious at all! I am gay, I grew up protestant. I visited this place on the way to Petoskey because it was listed online as one of those road side attractions you get out of the car and walk to. I saw the giant crucifix in the woods and the nun doll/mannequin museum. I was amazed, the crucifix is truly a work of modern art. And the grounds surrounding it are beautiful, a nice addition I’d say. I can only imagine how nice it is to actually attend this church and have some sermons outdoors or however they use that outdoor bit right below the crucifix, the church grounds also had these lovely statues and some beautiful flowers painting an overall contemporary and peaceful vibe to this establishment. And to that, the nun doll/mannequin museum was a really cool addition and gave you an opportunity as a guest to walk around the church, and see just how differently Christianity is amongst the different churches and branches. The mannequins and the dolls are each dressed to resemble the nun/pope/priest attire of whichever local church was labeled beneath it. Being from Metro Detroit, I thought it was so cool to see attire from nuns from Fraser and Detroit churches to make it to this museum, as well as across our other 50 states. This was also seemingly the largest collection of the sorts in the United States so that was awesome to see. Now, here is my few complaints. Growing up as a protestant: it was against my belief system to prop up Christianity in a way which is selling itself to others. I’ve never in my life been to a church that was so obviously monetary and tried to sell itself as such. I went to a smaller, quite frankly probably dying church, a German Lutheran one. The donations there, while I assume so here aren’t required; we’re definitely not required there. We took in massive amounts of homeless people and fed and housed them on the weekends. Perhaps it is just my smaller community, and the upbringing I have. But when you go, you’ll likely see what I mean; the gift shop, the optional donation boxes scattered around the church and outside. It must be great to exist in such a large and popular denomination, and I’m hoping that with this incredible budget (I’m assuming) the church has, that they do in fact give back to local communities such as mine did. Nonetheless, it was an interesting stop and I’m happy that I stopped...

Labor day 2022 My Family & I stopped by to visit. After time spent here enjoying the Beautiful, Peaceful grounds with prayer. I was saddened to see a 2 vehicle families, 2 burgandy 4 door pickup trucks, eat in the picnic area and leave all their garbage on the ground scattered never even bothered to pick up. I hope they have video recording of them and get their trucks plates to give them a Hefty fine! Their young teen boy with under eye dark circles, I had to scold, he was trying to pull out glass candles with lights in them in front of the church. I said don't do that you are messing with people's prayers and they are not toys! Still continued to finds ways to mess with them. The older boy with shorts and red sandals and all his family, Shameful to Disrespect this Holy place. Honestly the way they were all acting I felt it was All done on purpose to completely Disrespect the Cross In The Woods😔Unfortunately the sherrif arrived too late for they had already left the parking lot. Sadly it would be good to have gates and locked when no one is there. I hope to visit again next year I hope this never...

While the cross is beautiful, the attitude of the ladies in the gift shop are incredibly off-putting. There was a mess by the statue so I let the ladies know. I was then told for several minutes how "those caldean people, you know the people from Iraq come and we have to deal with it" I then got a speech about "those caldean people" for quite some time. She said all their rosaries and candles will be destroyed and thrown away. The way they spoke of other people was just awful. Very judgemental, rude and like they weren't worth kind words. I was very shocked. The attitudes and the judgements from them alone would make me not want to donate any money to the. The Jesus I know would never insult someone else like the people...