(kids howling) When you climb with a couple of excited preschoolers up a giant tree like this one, it's easy to forget you're inside a historic warehouse on Detroit's riverfront, not deep in the woods, somewhere up north.

At the Department of Natural Resources' Outdoor Adventure Center, the first step into nature starts on the stairs of an oak tree that was built to be climbed.

- We went up, all the way up, to our tree house.

- [Jamie] In the tree house?

Is this a real tree?

- No, it's not a real tree.

- [Jamie] It's not a real tree.

- But it's just magic to be in a tree house.

- [Jamie] It is magic to be in a tree house.

Is that your favorite part of this place?

For many kids, this place feels like magic.

For the people who work here, it's something more than that.

It's a bridge.

Emily Grant is an educational programmer at the OAC.

- It's wonderful how we connect people to all the outdoor things in Michigan.

We have three floors of outdoor resources in an indoor place.

- [Jamie] Trails, treetops, simulators and animals all under one roof.

For a lot of us in Michigan, spending time outdoors is a given, but for others it's not that simple.

- A lot of our friends are uncomfortable with outdoor experiences.

Sitting in the grass, in my outdoor education experience, can be really unsettling, uncomfortable for a lot of friends.

Here in the building, we can give those first steps into experiencing what nature has to offer, whether that's through a field trip class experience, or you're coming as your family, and you're coming to our Farm and Garden Expo and checking out agriculture in Michigan and how you can start a container garden in your backyard.

- [Jamie] Here it's a starting point to help ease visitors into a bigger adventure.

- [Emily] We're just trying to give you those first steps on the journey of really appreciating what's outside.

- [Jamie] The mission is as big as the space.

- Our job is to connect, inspire, and educate our guests in our Detroit neighborhood and beyond to Michigan's natural and cultural resources.

So, everything we do is about showing you what's here, what our state has to offer, and getting you to go do it.

You know, we really just wanna open the door for you.

- Assistant Director Katie Gillis sees that mission play out in the sheer volume of people who come through the doors.

- We opened in 2015.

Tens of thousands of visitors each year.

Yeah, we see a lot of folks between just families coming in, you know, public visitors on weekends, or even during the week, to school groups who come during the school year for field trips, and then we get day camp visitors in the summertime as well.

- [Jamie] And the place that they're discovering it in has already lived several lives.

Built in the 1890s, the Globe Building was once part of a massive ship-building complex along the Detroit River.

Over the decades, it shifted roles.

From engine works to a stove manufacturer to a Detroit Edison repair shop and eventually a warehouse for the Globe Trading Company.

Henry Ford spent two years here as an apprentice machinist learning the mechanics that would shape his future.

- The boilers for the ships built here were made in this building and there was a dry dock.

And then after that kind of phased out it was, you know, this area kind of became like a warehouse district and it got repurposed in those ways.

But it sat vacant for a while until our previous Chief of the Parks and Recreation Division, who we are under, had the vision for the Outdoor Adventure Summit.

- [Jamie] A building that once helped power Great Lake Ships now powers something different.

- Our mission is to inspire, educate, and connect our visitors to Michigan's natural resources.

So we do that through the components within the exhibits in the building, but also through our various educational and recreational programs that we offer.

- We just want you to experience another avenue of outdoor recreation.

If you choose to take that further, you can take on our four-week archery 101 class, you can do our explore archery programs, you can even get into like bow hunting classes and things, and learn about the hunt and harvest traditions of Michigan.

So, you can take this journey as deep as you like, or it can be more of a starting level and then you can go find new adventures elsewhere in the state.

- [Jamie] The second floor has its own way of putting you into the landscape.

- [Emily] Our rides exhibits are so popular.

So, you can test out a snowmobile and an off-road vehicle.

The videos are of beautiful up-north parks.

- [Jamie] Interactive trails, the squirrel shooting simulator, and a wood plank walkway up top gives you an overhead view.

You can also get a look at the night sky along with the fish swimming in giant aquariums - So, you really feel like you're in it and experiencing those big adventures out there.

- [Jamie] Employees like Miranda Grant started out as a young visitor.

Now, she's helping kids meet Michigan's wildlife face to face.

- Came for, like, my ninth birthday.

I love the place.

I love stuff like this.

I'm very lucky I come from a family that got me outside a lot and interacting with things like this.

My main role is helping educate the public about Michigan's natural resources in wildlife, especially.

We'll do teaching tables, assist with classroom programs.

So, this is a great place for kids that either wanna get outside or maybe they're not super confident going outside yet.

It's a good entry point.

Every now and then, no matter the age, we'll get one kid that's super, super into a specific thing.

I love it.

We get a lot of kids who they see the animals, that's what they're really, really drawn to because it's a turtle right in front of me.

- [Jamie] Adventure Guide Kai Green also first came here when he was young through a program designed to help get kids outside.

- What brought me here was the Healthy Kids Program, which is a program that exposes kids to the Department of Natural Resources and different things in nature.

We went to different parks, state and non-state parks.

And this was a facility that we went to and that's where I first saw this facility.

We got to see what they did with animal care, testing the water to make sure the pH and nitrate levels are correct.

- [Jamie] Now, Kai is one of the people explaining what lives in Michigan's forest and wetlands with the help of some face-to-face meetings with some animal ambassadors inside the Habitat Lounge.

- One thing that we do in this room a lot is herpetology, which is frogs and turtles and salamanders.

So, we give education based on that because one thing about this facility is that we specialize in animals that are in Michigan.

That's why one of the slogans is bring up north downtown.

- [Jamie] Inside the building or out in the field, the point is the same, turn curiosity into confidence.

For Katie, that looks like something specific when visitors walk back out the door.

- Michigan state parks are all of our state parks and these are all places that we can visit and enjoy and protect.

And I really hope that everyone who visits the building maybe walks away with like a new interest or a new hobby that they might wanna try or expand on outside in our state parks here.

- [Jamie] And for Emily, it boils down to something simple.

- I just want you to go outside.

I love playing outside.

I've always gone camping and hiking and all of that good stuff.

And it's not an experience that everybody gets to have in their childhood.

So, no matter how big of a kid you are, you know, we work with seniors and three-year-olds and everybody in between, we want you to go play outside after you come visit us.

You can come back and see us again, but mostly just go play outside.