Great Lakes Trail

Paul Lundgren Jun 01, 2015 2 Comments

Trailblazing

If all the existing trails, trails under construction and trails in the planning phases in Duluth aren’t quite enough, here’s a rather ambitious plan that would upset a few local backyards. The Detroit Free Press reports of a plan for the “Great Lakes Trail” — a 10,900-mile trail spanning at least eight states and two Canadian provinces, following the shores of the five Great Lakes.

World’s longest marked trail proposed around Great Lakes

As the Great Lakes states were admitted into the Union, the federal government granted them the lake beds and waters of the Great Lakes up to the ordinary high-water mark — from the point on the bank or shore where continuous wave action has made a distinct mark, to the water.

This was affirmed by a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1894, in the Shively v. Bowlby case. The justices found that lands below the high-water mark were “for the benefit of the whole people.” (This may come as news to owners of $750,000 lakefront homes whose deed tells them the shoreline is theirs.)

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2 Comments

hbh1

about 9 years ago 

Yeah, this will never happen. Never mind any $750,000 vacation home. I'm thinking of Winnetka and those places north of Chicago on Lake Michigan where they have more money than all the gods put together. Ain't no way those people are gonna have us ruffians traipsing through their lake view. Not a chance in hell.

benDE

about 9 years ago 

The private of the private is one thing. The private of the corporate is another altogether and this is the real problem. We have chosen, for practical reasons, to sandwich most of our transportation corridors, industrial areas and power generation stations along these lake shores. Add to this the geography of river estuaries and you will have many many miles of walking along interstate bridges regardless of what 'the man' says.

North Shore? Great!  Sandusky Bay?  No thanks.

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