2024 White Pine Trail Highlights and Things to Come in 2025

1.  CULVERTS:  A couple miles south of Big Rapids, a bad culvert discovered when the base coat of asphalt was laid last fall, was replaced south of New Millpond Rd.  A couple miles south of there, another culvert due to redesign last fall had to wait until this year to get repaired.  Finally, about a half mile north of M46, which is a couple miles north of Howard City, had a collapsed culvert replaced with a 40' bridge late this fall.  Concrete approaches will be poured next Spring, followed by paving the one LAST mile from M46 north to Yankee Rd., which is scheduled to occur prior to Memorial Day.  The paving of ALL 92 miles of the WPT will be complete, which started back in 1998 with the first 13 miles from Big Rapids north to Reed City!!

2.  PAVING OF FOUR AND A HALF MILES:  After the two most northern culverts were addressed as outlined in the above paragraph, paving occurred in late October.

3.  CONCRETE INTERSECTIONS:  From Stanwood north about 8 miles to M20 in Big Rapids, about a dozen intersections needed to have concrete laid and ADA tiles set in the wet concrete.  This was accomplished throughout the fall.

4.  SIGNS:  From Stanwood north to M20 in Big Rapids, regulatory signs (Stop, Stop Ahead, etc.) and road/street name signs were installed.  Safety signs on roads/streets will be installed in the Spring on this stretch of the trail.

5.  BIG RAPIDS DEPOT TRAILHEAD PARK:  Construction has finally begun!  Last year, the City of Big Rapids was successful in obtaining a $450,000 Revitalization & Place-making grant from the State.  It needed to be matched 100% with local funds.  A few weeks ago, construction started on the two acre parcel the City owns adjacent to and south of the privately owned Depot property.  In a race against the closing of the asphalt plant and the weather, the parking lot of the Depot property got its base coat of asphalt before winter.  Construction of the Depot Park will continue throughout the winter, with the vast majority of the project completed by the end of February and the project totally completed before June 30.

6.  BICYCLE SHOP COMING TO BIG RAPIDS:  Another big win for Big Rapids and the White Pine Trail - a bicycle shop is moving into the Big Rapids Depot.  The Klussmann's, owner of the historic Depot, have been great partners with the City in developing this prime piece of property that has lain dormant for over a quarter century!  Einstein Cycles, with established bike shops already in Traverse City and Cadillac, plan to open their Big Rapids store April 1, 2025!!  With Big Rapids being located at the midpoint of the White Pine Trail and having a nice new trailhead park and a bike shop located adjacent to each other, will be a huge asset for all trail users.

7.  CEDAR SPRINGS PARK ENHANCEMENT:  Cedar Springs was successful in obtaining a DNR Trust Fund grant to enhance an area next to the White Pine Trail.  It will include a year-round restroom, more parking and playground equipment.

8.  HERITAGE TRAIL, WAY FINDING & ART SCULPTURES:  The White Pine Trail will become the seventh "Rail Trail" in Michigan to become a Heritage Trail.  This project involves the researching, documenting and developing long-lasting full color interruptive signs of the many communities and people that have lived along the 92-mile White Pine Trail.  This content will also be made available digitally through QR codes.  The goal is to have these signs placed jointly with the trail way finding signs.  While much progress has been made on this "first of a kind" sign project, it still has a ways to go, so actual installation of this significant sign project won't occur until 2026, but the wait will be worth it!  

Another component of this unique project is the hopeful creation of three significant metal sculptures through partnerships with the three communities of Cadillac, Big Rapids and Comstock Park (one at each end of the Trail and one in the middle).  The Big Rapids sculpture is under contract and is scheduled to be installed in 2025 and will be created by the same well-known metal sculpture artist, Ivan Iler, the person who created the famous large Brown Trout in Baldwin on M37 and the "Bear" located next to the Big Rapids Riverwalk Bridge over the Muskegon River.

Two displays that demonstrate the uses of “Log Marks” during the heyday of Michigan’s logging industry are planned, one each in Rockford and Reed City. The displays will have two full-size log re-creations designed by the artist, Rich Geer. The logs will have authentic log-marks used in the 1800’s that people can see and touch. Each display will cost $7,000 and we are actively raising funds to make this happen.

9.  REPAIRS IN THE ROCKFORD AREA AND BIG RAPIDS TO REED CITY:  Now that the entire trail is paved (by Memorial Day, 2025), efforts will now focus on doing some badly needed repairs to the trail.  No specific sections or time lines have been established yet, but it is a high priority to work on these two areas of the trail.

10.  A COUPLE IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT THE WPT:  If you didn't know it, when the last mile gets paved next Spring, the White Pine Trail will become the longest paved single trail in Michigan, per the DNR AND the third longest paved single trail in the COUNTRY per americantrails.org!!