Outdoors

Copper Shores awards recreation grants

$600,000 awarded

HANCOCK -- Copper Shores announced Thursday it was awarding more than $600,000 in recreation-based grants to three entities in the Copper Country -- Swedetown Trails Club, Copper Harbor Trails Club and the Mountain Lions Club.

Copper Shores Director of Marketing and Donor Relations Michael Babcock said continuing the work with these three organizations helps the whole community. "All three of them are partners we've worked with before," he said. "They're people we have a lot of trust and good relationships with -- all three of them. They're really taking big steps forward."

Copper Harbor Trails Club's Keweenaw Point Trial project received $50,000, the Mountain Lions Club's renovations to its Adventure Mountain Chalet received $52,642 and universal access and expansion to Swedetown Trails Club's Chalet received the bulk of the funding at $500,000.

"We've been funding recreation projects like these the entire time we've been in existence," Babcock said. "It's nice to be able to partner with these groups because work like this is a lot more expensive than people might think."

The accessibility expansion of the Swedetown Chalet has been in the works since 2022. Swedetown Trails Club Board Member Dean Woodbeck said the chalet has seen increased use over the years and the $500,000 contribution to its $1.1 million project will help finish making the chalet better for everyone.

"We could not have built the chalet without the Copper Shores funding," he said. "It [the chalet] fits right in their wheelhouse in terms of outdoor recreation, accessibility and trying to provide these opportunities for everybody regardless of ability."

According to Babcock and Woodbeck, the funding is a multi-year grant to be paid out to Calumet Township. Babcock added Copper Shores's contribution is a historic one.

"We've walked with them, basically every step of the way," he said. "Providing this kind of funding -- which is one of the biggest grants we've ever done -- it makes our board proud to be a part of something like this.”

Copper Harbor Trails Club received $50,000 to help complete the final 7.5-mile stretch of its Keweenaw Point Trail. Executive Director Adam Yeoman said the funding will go towards the first permanent and sustainable trail going towards Montreal Falls.

"This will be a very cool trail to get folks to the falls from the parking lot," he said. "It's really an asset for more than just bikers, but the full Keweenaw community."

According to Yeoman, the trail has been in the works since 2014 will contain $750,000 worth of constructed trail when finished. The Trails Club aims to complete the project in late-October.

Lastly, those in the Ontonagon area will see the funds at work with the completion of the Adventure Mountain Chalet renovations in Greenland.

"Copper Shores has been a key part of our success at Adventure Mountain in recent years. In 2017 we received a DNR Recreation Passport Grant to put a rope tow back on the ski hill. Copper Shores awarded us with a grant to meet the cash match requirements on the DNR Grant," Mountain Lions Secretary Dean Juntunen said. "Copper Shores also helped us purchase a utility snowmobile for grooming the ski hill. And now this year they gave us a grant to renovate our chalet - new windows, doors, siding, and soffit."