Opening of Historic Iron Ore Trail

People have already been using the Iron Ore Heritage Trail for a while now, but the one portion of it that’s already been paved finally gets an official opening.

More than 100 second-graders from the Negaunee schools got to check out the paved part of the trail, and they weren’t the only ones on hand to open the books on it.

Congressman Bart Stupak says the efforts of the 10 townships the trail passes through, and the Iron Ore Heritage Trail Authority’s efforts in getting them to come together, are a model for other areas of the country to follow.

The trail should stretch 48 miles, from Republic to Harvey, within 5 years.

The county health department recently did a survey on the trail to see how many people are already using it.

They found about 450 people per day, more than double what they’d expected.

An old CCI mining site in Republic, near the eastern end of the trail, just reopened today as a reclaimed wetland.