Michigan Travel · Jackson
The Cascades light season ended Sept. 12
Jackson County’s illuminated Cascades are off the 2026 calendar. The county parks hours sheet marks show nights from May into September and none after Sept. 12. Oct. 4 is not on it.
The sheet sets regular hours at 8 to 11 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, and family night at 6 to 11 p.m. on Wednesday. A county facilities page gives the same close in words: Memorial Day weekend through Sept. 12, Wednesday through Sunday, at 8 to 11 p.m. The hours sheet starts Wednesday family night at 6 p.m. The county does not reconcile the hour. The last date marked on the sheet, Sept. 12, carries the sheet’s fireworks symbol.
The falls are not the downtown view in the image. They are in Sparks Foundation County Park, at 1401 South Brown St. The county’s Cascades page calls them Jackson’s most famous landmark: an illuminated, man-made waterfall. The page says family night in summer brings live music and the falls, and that summer Saturdays bring live music at the Rotary Bandshell in the same park.
That page lists the falls at 500 feet long, 64 feet of vertical height and 90 feet wide, with six fountains and 16 falls, 11 of them illuminated. The facilities page lists the width as 60 feet. The county does not explain the difference.
The Cascades page dates construction to an early spring in the 1930s and puts the first public display on May 10, 1932. A history section on the same page says they opened to a crowd of 25,000 on May 9, 1932. Both dates are the county’s.
The county credits the falls to William Sparks and says he was elected to three terms as Jackson’s mayor. It says he took the idea from a fountain he saw in Barcelona. It says that after his death in 1943 the park and the falls were given to the county, that no foundation backs the Cascades today, and that admission and donation money pays for their upkeep and operation.
On the 2026 sheet, a regular ticket is $5 for ages 13 and older, $3 for ages 4 to 12 and $4 for ages 65 and older. Children 3 and under are free with a paying adult. Wednesday family night is $15 for up to eight people. Fireworks nights are $8 for ages 13 and older, $6 for ages 4 to 12 and $6 for seniors. Those prices are for the nights the county marked. Sept. 12 was the last of them. A visitor on this Sunday is not buying that ticket.
The image is an altered view west across downtown. It is not a photograph of the Cascades, and it is not evidence of which buildings stand on that block.
Sources:
Jackson County, “The Cascades (also known as Cascade Falls),” https://co.jackson.mi.us/629/The-Cascades
Jackson County, Cascades facility details, https://co.jackson.mi.us/Facilities/Facility/Details/The-Cascades-27
Jackson County Parks, “2026 Hours and Admission Rates” for the Cascades, https://co.jackson.mi.us/DocumentCenter/View/22605
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