Latest news, weather, high school sports for Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

MARQUETTE -- In the mid 1900s, the Lower Harbor ore dock in Marquette was booming with business, but since it closed in the early '70s, it's been sitting lifeless in Lower Harbor for decades.

Today, it's a symbol of downtown; an architectural staple.  It's featured on Marquette websites, in paintings and on city postcards, yet it serves the city absolutely no real purpose.

Still, the ore dock has attracted the attention of tourists and developers.

"The ore dock itself is a piece of the history of Marquette," said Director of Planning and Community Development for Marquette, Dennis Stachewicz.  "It reminds us of what the community once was.  It reminds us of the heritage of the area."

But two major problems have stood in the way of development.  First there's cost.  Although the Planning Commission couldn't give us a figure, they said building on or removing the structure would take significant funds.

Then, there's the Great Lakes Bottomlands Act, a 1965 amendment to the Submerged Lands Act, which requires a permit from the state for altering bottomlands, like the one at the ore dock. According to the law, the DEQ must consider the impact on the public trust when reviewing permit applications to construct on or occupy Great Lakes bottomlands.

"The act specifies that the use has to be public in nature, and generally it has to be something that cannot occur on land," Stachewicz said.

Former plans to develop the site, like one model exhibited in Marquette's Masonic Center, failed because private residences and shops would block public usage.

So what would it take for anything to happen down at the ore dock?  Well, the Planning Commission says an act of state legislators.  They would need to alter the Bottomlands Act for any significant development to take place.  It would also take a developer with a lot of funds.  Until then, the great dock remains a historic monument.