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

NEGAUNEE -- Soon, people will have even more space on the Iron Ore Heritage Trail.

The new twelve-mile trail will connect Chocolay Township to Ishpeming, making the whole trail network 30 miles long, going from Marquette all the way to Republic.

"Thirty miles of trail now opens us to marketing to outsiders and bringing people in. But it's also good for our community because it's going to bring people along trails that they probably have never been to, or around areas in the county that were once gated off," Trail Administrator Carol Fulsher said.

It's been in the works for about a year, and with the help of a DNR trust fund and an M-dot grant totaling 1.1 million dollars, they're putting the plan into action.

Construction of the new trail will start right along here, before making its way to downtown Ishpeming.

The DNR not only helped financially, but also with trail location.

"They also helped them to find areas where it made the most sense to have the trail go through. Areas where they won't be going across wetlands or other areas where you don't want to have that trail traffic," said Debbie Munson Badini of the DNR.

The new path will have ten new historical markers throughout the trail.

Construction is set to start by July, and is expected to be done by the end of the year.

After this portion of the trail is done, they'll move onto the next phase -- creating another one west of Ishpeming.