Federal funds help Heritage Trail expand to Port Oneida
Photo by Kerry Kelly
The Detroit Free Press and other media outlets report that the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has awarded $100,000 to the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) to extend the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Heritage Trail an additional 4.75 miles.
The paved, non-motorized recreational trail currently stretches from Glen Arbor to the Dune Climb and will expand westward to the village of Empire this year. This federal infusion of funds will connect the trail from Glen Arbor north to the Port Oneida Rural Historic District, thus completing 14.25 miles of the trail. This project complements $1.3 million given to MDOT last year to construct the portion of the Heritage Trail from Glen Arbor to Empire.
The state also received $175,000 from USDOT to purchase a 25-passenger electric-diesel bus to transport an estimated 15,000 annual hikers and backpackers in and out of 13 different campgrounds in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. All told, USDOT awarded more than $1.6 million in grants to provide better access to some of the state’s most picturesque spots.
