HOUGHTON – Funding to buy about 80 acres at the Douglass Houghton Falls has cleared the state House of Representatives.

By a 103-2 vote, the House approved a bill providing nearly $28 million for Michigan Natural Resources Trust Funds projects across the state. That includes $600,000 for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Parks and Recreation Division to purchase and preserve public access to the falls and Hammell Creek Gorge. The bill now goes to the Senate.

The land, near Lake Linden, is split between Schoolcraft Township and Calumet Township, which has been working for the past 14 years to reopen public access. It includes 100-foot falls, the highest in the state, and will also house the trailhead of the Hancock-to-Laurium Rail Trail.

State Rep. Scott Dianda, D-Calumet, who voted in favor of the bill, called the project “phenomenally important” for the Copper Country.

“This is going to be another economic driver for the area,” he said.

The easy access from M-26 and the snowmobile trail will bring visitors to the site year-round, said Dianda, who fondly remembered visits to the falls dating back to his childhood. Much like Tahquamenon Falls, he said, the falls are beautiful to look at in the winter.

“It’s going to be a destination, and it’ll bring people into the Keweenaw that like to follow the waterfalls across our state and across the country,” he said. “It’s going to make an economic impact from people that are going to come up for a couple days and look around.”

If the funding remains in the final state Legislature-approved bill, it will go to Gov. Rick Snyder. The DNR would then work with the property owner on a final agreement. It would partner with the Houghton-Keweenaw Recreation Authority and Calumet Township on a management plan for the site.