Mary Steven/Daily Mining Gazette from left: Owner Derek Bradway, Anne Vogel EPA regional administrator, Phil Roos EGLE director, Jesse Weiderhold of Visit Keweenaw, and Josef Greenberg, Public Information Officer for EGLE.

HOUGHTON CANAL– On Tuesday, the Keweenaw Waters Resort invited members of the community to its official grand opening. After years of work and environmental rehabilitation, the foliage-surrounded campus is ready for use.

“I’m really thrilled to be here today with you all at the official opening of the Keweenaw Waters Resort.” said Phil Roos, the director of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). “It’s hard to appreciate that this was once a copper smelting site for forty-five years or so, and then a junkyard after that.”

Due to the nature of the smelting site and junkyard, the area was contaminated with arsenic and lead. With assistance from the Environmental Protection Agency, the area was able to be rehabilitated with eight hundred acres of specially engineered soil.

“It’s totally safe now,” Roos said. “It’s a place people can be out here and enjoy the beautiful views here. It’s a really special place.”

Roos also thanked Michigan Senator Gary Peters, who was in the audience, and Congressman Jack Bergman for helping to secure the federal funding needed to make the site usable and safe.

Anne Vogel, the Regional EPA Administrator for much of the Midwest, congratulated and thanked owner Derek Bradway for his dedication to the project. She also acknowledged the work and funding from local and federal contributors.

“I think the folks that worked at the smelter plant would be thrilled to see what you did here.” she said.

During his speech, Bradway explained the amount of research that went into the renovation, which included the construction of several waterfront cabins, multiple campsites, and year-round access to local ORV trails.

“I read everything I could get my hands on,” he said. “I figured out that this was certainly a doable project, and that we could do it in a responsible way, we could do it in a way that was not only protective of the folks that live here, because we raise our families here, but we could do it in such a way that is an economic boon.”

According to Bradway, the resort can support five hundred people a day, bringing in roughly eighteen million dollars a year for the Keweenaw.

Bradway also highlighted the local labor used in the building of the resort.

“We employed local folks who put this together. A lot of what you see here is not only assembled locally, but made locally.”

A mill in Dollar Bay was used to process local pines and cedar to build the resort’s cabins and other facilities.

As he concluded his speech, Bradway teared up, thanking everyone who supported him throughout the project.

“A number of people who are in this audience came to my aid. They fired off emails, they wrote a lot of letters, and I wasn’t expecting any of that. They just volunteered…I really want to make it a little gem for our area…but I didn’t do it alone.”

After his speech, Bradway and the other speakers officially cut the ribbon to open the resort.

“I’ve been trying to make different areas of our area a bit better than what we found them,” Bradway said when asked about his personal connections to the resort. “This is just a challenge on a larger scale…taking a blighted, contaminated, superfund site and making it a real gem. Personally, there’s a lot of satisfaction of seeing that come to reality.”

“Guests are coming up here, they’re having a vacation,” he added. “So I hope they have the most phenomenal vacation that exceeds what they’re looking for.”