State Funds To Boost Swedetown, Keweenaw Bay Path

The Swedetown Recreation Area will be expanding. 

Governor Gretchen Whitmer on Friday authorized the distribution of more than $28 million in Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund grants. 

$66,000 of that will come to Calumet Township to purchase two parcels totaling 30 acres adjacent to the Swedetown Recreation Area. One of the parcels is wooded, and suitable for trail development. The other will be used to expand parking and staging facilities for events such as the Great Bear Chase. The Swedetown system currently includes 25 miles of summer-use trails for hiking, running and biking, and 35 kilometers of cross country ski trails for winter use.

Baraga County and the Village of Baraga will receive $300,000 to build the next leg of the Keweenaw Bay Non-Motorized Pathway. The first segment from the Sand Point Lighthouse at the Ojibwa Recreation area to the Baraga Marina has been completed. The next phase will run more than a mile from the Marina south to the Baraga State Park, and will include a boardwalk overlooking Lake Superior. The eventual goal is to extend the pathway around the head of the bay, past L’Anse.

Van Riper State Park will get $50,000 to rebuild a deteriorating 1.5-mile section of the popular Overlook Trail, which provides vistas of the Peshekee River and Lake Michigamme. It’s suffering from some serious erosion problems.

The city of Ironwood is also getting some cash – $14,800 to purchase land to extend the Southern Beltline Trail from Norrie Park north through the city’s western neighborhoods, and $38,100 to rebuild campsites at the Curry Park Campground.

Money from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund is used exclusively for natural resource protection and outdoor recreation.