EAGLE RIVER, MI – As the Keweenaw County Board struggles with the ailing Keweenaw Mountain Lodge, one local resident has come up with what he thinks could be a viable solution to the problem.

At a special meeting of the KML Board last Wednesday night, Eagle River resident Paul Mihelcich, owner of the Jam Lady, suggested approaching the Pure Michigan tourism program with a slogan for Keweenaw County: “Pure Michigan Starts Here.”

“Pure Michigan does start here,” Mihelcich said, “right up here, on the tip of the peninsula, with Copper Harbor, the mountain lodge, High Rock Bay, the missile launch site, the heart of thimbleberry country, the heart of agate country, the heart of the Copper Country.”

Keweenaw County is also the home of Fort Wilkins, the Copper Harbor lighthouse, as well as several other lighthouses, and is also a gateway to Isle Royale.

“All of these things are the reason Pure Michigan starts here,” he said, and the KML would be the ideal site to establish a Pure Michigan informational station.

Mihelcich said the KML has a large number of visitors, including those stopping “just to eat there.” The entrance to the KLM would be an ideal spot for a large informational station, for which service Pure Michigan would pay to the county.

Mihelcich said Keweenaw County is a service county to Houghton County, and for that reason, perhaps the board could induce Michigan Technological University to contribute as well.

A large number of Michigan Tech students frequent Keweenaw County for the bike trails, hiking opportunities, canoeing and hiking adventures, and recreation in general, Mihelcich said.

“The Pure Michigan Starts Here is one campaign. Then we have to approach Michigan Tech. Which way they come on board as an acting partner in the county that their students recreate in, I’m not sure yet,” Mihelcich said. “I don’t know how we’d get this across to Tech that we need some help.”

If the board can get Pure Michigan to adopt such a proposal, the mountain lodge would be a perfect spot for it because “they’ve got lots of people coming and going. Now they would have a place to display all their literature and (KML employees) to keep on top of it,” Mihelcich said. “They’re not going to run out of this or run out of that – we’ve got people there every day to take care of it.”