Pack away those dreams of walking miles from bay to bay along the shores of Lake Michigan this summer—unless you want to get wet, that is.
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The public has the right to walk the Great Lakes shoreline, even along privately owned beaches. The United States Supreme Court reaffirmed that right on Tuesday. The court declined to hear an Indiana case filed by riparian land owners who live along the south shore of Lake Michigan.
It’s common knowledge that the public can walk along the Lake Michigan shoreline. You can walk it anywhere on public property. That means public road ends, or the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The question is: how far from the water’s edge can a person legally walk along private property? This is an important issue, since about 70 percent of Michigan’s “third coast” is privately owned. The answer is unclear, because neither courts in Michigan nor in other Great Lakes states have offered a clear and consistent answer.