Iron County trail effort advances

HURLEY — The effort to extend non-motorized trails into from Michigan into Iron County is expected to take a big step forward Monday as the non-motorized trail group is meeting with other stakeholders to discuss the trail’s temporary route through Hurley.

The group is meeting members of the Hurley Chamber of Commerce, Iron County Recreation Council and city police at 3 p.m. to discuss the route non-motorized users will take from the trailhead on Second Avenue west through downtown Hurley to Fifth Avenue.

The trail committee will then meet at the Iron County Courthouse to discuss how best to handle money raised from future fundraising efforts. The discussion will primarily center around whether the committee will approach another organization to act as the depository for funds, or if the committee should seek non-profit status and handle the funds itself.

The money will be used for the planned amenities at the trailhead, located between the Montreal River and Second Avenue — which will likely include the construction of a pavilion and other features at the trailhead, as well as the paving of a parking lot.

Trail proponents have been hoping to pave the two-block section trail from the river to Second Avenue for several years, so the local section of the larger Iron Belle Trail — which runs between Belle Isle in Detroit and Ironwood — can be extended from Ironwood into Hurley. Work was unable to be completed until now, as the land intended for the trail was owned by the railroad company that owned the former Soo Line rail grade.

The city of Hurley is in the process of finalizing the purchase of the two-block section of land, having agreed to buy it from the rail company with a $5,000 Gogebic Range Health Foundation grant.

So far, the trail between the Michigan side of the Montreal River in Ironwood and downtown Bessemer has been paved.

Planning a route through Hurley is a key first step in the trail advocates’ goal of extending the trail to Cary Park, and then the trail system in the city of Montreal, Wis.

—Richard Jenkins