Sandra Clark, the Lansing-based director of the Michigan History Center, addresses the public at a DNR info session Tuesday at Michigan Tech. Mary Christine Stevens/for the Mining Gazette

HOUGHTON — The air buzzed with tension in the Memorial Union Building on Michigan Tech’s campus Tuesday.

The Department of Natural Resources hosted a public forum, hoping to find out what area residents think about the creation of a Copper Country National Heritage Area (NHA) in the Western Upper Peninsula. The DNR’s Office of Public Lands and Michigan History Center are working together to determine if a National Heritage Area designation would be possible. The designation would cover Keweenaw, Houghton and Ontonagon counties, along with Isle Royale. 

The forum included an information session from Lansing-based Sandra Clark, the director of the Michigan History Center. Clark’s presentation opened with defining a National Heritage Area as “places where historic, cultural and natural resources combine to form cohesive, nationally important landscapes … National Heritage Area entities collaborate with communities to determine how to make heritage relevant to local interests and needs.” 

Clark explained to dozens of attendees that the first step to creating an NHA in the Keweenaw was to conduct a feasibility study with the National Park Service. This study would help determine if there is a “nationally significant” story to be told, as well as finding out if there is public support for the project. Financial capacity and boundaries of the NHA would also be included in the study. After that, a management plan would be created and borders would be established.

Clark was pelted with questions and criticism from the public before she got halfway through her presentation. One audience member wanted to know why the DNR was interested in the Keweenaw’s land. 

“We have a lot of public land already in the Keweenaw, and we’re talking about taking responsibility for a fair amount more in the tip of the Keweenaw,” Clark explained. “We want to be part of the community as we think about how that land is used. We want to be sure community values dominate how that new land is used.” 

Stacy Hoya, the VP of Field Development, covers all UP counties for the DNR. She explained that the Keweenaw County Board of Commissioners had contacted the DNR in 2021. Along with 200 letters of support, the board asked the DNR to purchase property for sale in Keweenaw County. According to Hoya, the DNR was “asked to be here.” 

Many residents had concerns, specifically over property rights, government overreach and finances. Hoya encouraged attendees to let Clark finish her presentation, to which one audience member responded, “This is our land that we’re talking about. Please respect that.” 

“Basically what you’re doing is starting an HOA for our area,” one attendee told Clark. “You’re going to have a group of people deciding what can and can’t be done. I read the articles. It’s more or less, somebody’s going to be in control and saying, ‘You can’t do that’, or ‘this is what we want to do, we want to make a trail going across your property’. I want to know where the limitations are.”

Clark insisted that private property rights would not be affected. 

Another attendee brought up the fact that this project may take away resources from other local organizations, such as the Keweenaw Land Trust and Keweenaw Historical Society. Clark tried to reassure the crowd that this was not the case. One man in the audience claimed there was no point in preserving the culture and history of the Keweenaw. According to him, Finnish and Cornish miners were brought here as slaves, and their families were killed by the mining companies.

“It’s time to let it go and move on,” he added.

Another audience member was worried about the government overstepping its boundaries without properly informing Keweenaw residents. 

“I don’t appreciate the fact that a federal entity can come up here and take whatever kind of jurisdiction over my property. We have 10 acres. It’s not a lot, but it’s ours. I don’t like that they can take jurisdiction over that without so much as letting me know. If I hadn’t heard about this I wouldn’t have known. That’s not fair, that’s not right, it’s not American. It’s not freedom.” This comment was punctuated with applause from the audience. 

Many were also worried about having to match the $500,000 grant that was part of the NHA deal. There were many comments emphasizing that the area may not be able to front this kind of money, or that it wouldn’t be enough to make it worth taking on the almost three-year process of becoming an NHA. One man pointed out that while $500,000 may be a lot to one person, it may not make that much of a difference in the Keweenaw as a whole.

Franklin Township Supervisor Mary Sears was a vocal member of the audience.

“This is an unnecessary redundancy. We’ve got great organizations already that are handling this. We have the Keweenaw National Park. We have an advisory commission that has already pulled all of these different stakeholders together, they work very, very closely with them,” Sears began. “What they are is grossly understaffed and grossly underfunded. The federal government has oversight on those entities and cannot fund them, cannot staff them appropriately. Yet, you want to come in here with an umbrella group that is just one more layer of crap on top of everything. Pull funds from them, pull resources, pull people from them, that are scrambling, trying to do the things that they’re supposed to be doing in this area. We already have an economic development alliance, which is excellent. We have a chamber of commerce. We already have a trails authority. We do not need this.

“As the township supervisor, our township will not be participating in this. I will be writing a resolution to say that we are not participating in this,” Sears said. “And we will also encourage our county commissioners to write a resolution not to participate in this.” 

At the end of the forum, the DNR officials thanked attendees for their time and handed out comment sheets to each member of the audience. 

“We’re not asking anybody to make a decision about this today,” Clark said. “This is just the beginning of a conversation.”

A second session of the forum was held at 6 p.m. the same day. No further discussions or events have been scheduled at this time.