Kayakers, rafters, hunters, anglers and birders rejoice – the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has purchased 2,354 acres of Upper Peninsula beauty and is granting you access.
Below Quiver Falls in the Menominee River Natural Resources Area. Photo: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
The land, located near the border of Michigan and Wisconsin, was purchased from the Wisconsin Electric Power Company for $2,534,400 with money from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund and DNR Land Exchange Facilitation Fund. It’s divided into two parcels — Piers Gorge and Quiver Falls.
There are almost 10 miles of access to the Menominee River within the parcels. Quiver Falls is adjacent to the Menominee River Natural Resource Area, a 4,450-acre parcel managed by Michigan and Wisconsin Departments of Natural Resources.
“This acquisition will give the Michigan Department of Natural Resources a unique opportunity to co-manage this area with our counterparts in Wisconsin,” said Ron Olson, chief of the Michigan DNR’s Parks and Recreation Division in a prepared statement. “This would be our first jointly operated public recreation area and river corridor park, and would protect and make open to the public more than 5,000 acres along the Menominee River. The tourism potential of this project is enormous.”
Google, Michigan State Land Cap and select from links, especially the MUCC links, or go to Michigan Legislative Bills and search for SB248.
Still, acreage like this would be hard to beat anywhere else in the state. This is a pretty cool story! Don’t forget – as falls Menominee, so falls Menominee Falls.
Paul, could you provide a link that would allow us to look into that further?
You understand that based on legislation brought by the Repugs there is a cap on land that MI can own. So somewhere else in the state an equivalent amount of state land must be disposed of to the private sector. Whose favorite parcel of state land will be gone sometime in the near future?
I don’t believe that the state should continually amass land unless it is of some significance, but, someone will lose out somewhere in the state. Likely, it will be state land sought by a developer who wants to put up condos, or a golf course, or a fantasy theme park, which has been tried in recent years.
What a wonderful gift to nature lovers! Now if we could get rid of these extractive mining operations with their potential to harm our water supplies………..
Nelda B. I.
I agree. The tourism potential of this project is enormous. This is the future of the Upper Peninsula. Not sulfide mining.
What a wonderful legacy for Michigan – and tourists coming to Michigan.