The City of Marquette has been awarded a SPARK Grant, totaling $458,800 by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to transform the vacant building and adjacent Father Marquette and Lakeside Lion’s Park into a designated regional trailhead. This project will create a local and regional destination, while improving walking and wheelchair access to the City’s new Cultural Trail, historic downtown, and waterfront. The trailhead will extend and promote outdoor recreational opportunities that exist far beyond municipal and county lines, connecting visitors and residents to the Iron Ore Heritage Trail, the Iron Belle Trail, the North Country Trail and providing wayfinding to the Noquemanon Trail Network.

This project is in direct alignment with the City of Marquette's Five-Year Recreation Master Plan, which prioritizes the creation of a downtown trailhead, an interpretive Cultural Trail and accessibility for users of all abilities. 

Grant funding will create a paved spur that connects the trailhead to the City’s new Cultural Trail, multi-use pathway and regional trail systems, add an ADA-accessible restroom within the vacant building formerly occupied by Lake Superior Community Partnership on the site, reconfigure the parking lot and improve stormwater management, provide an informational  trail kiosk, provide a drinking fountain with bottle filler, and introduce some green infrastructure to the park in the form of bioswales, rain gardens and native plantings.

The grant award is $458,800 with the approximately 3% match provided by Superior Watershed Partnership.