Trails in the News - Press Clipping Files

12/30/2006

Vandals Destroy Signs on Gaylord to Mackinaw City Trail

Traverse City Record Eagle

MULLETT LAKE — Vandals ruined about 25 signs along a contentious snowmobile trail in Cheboygan County.

All the trail signs along a mile-and-a-half stretch of the Mullett Lake snowmobile route were ripped from posts, and some posts were pulled from the ground. None of the missing signs was found in the area targeted, south of the village of Mullett Lake.

"If we would have had snow, it could have been a safety issue. But we didn't and got them replaced quickly. It was the only time I've been glad we didn't have snow,” said Mark Elliott of Cheboygan, vice president of the Cheboygan Trailblazers.

Elliott and another member of the local snowmobile club worked over the holiday weekend to replace the stolen signs and vandalized posts.

Trail signs are paid for through the state's snowmobile fund, replenished with registration and permit fees. The stolen signs will cost about $250 to $300 to replace, state officials said.

Michigan State Police in Cheboygan are investigating.

"This is nothing rare. It happens all the time. People steal them or knock them down. It's just this trail happens to be controversial,” said Paige Perry, a trails program analyst for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

The 12-mile trail stretches along the western shoreline of Mullett Lake and was opened for snowmobile traffic for the first time this month.

The abandoned railroad property has been at the center of a nearly decade-long dispute. The land was purchased by the state in 1998 with Michigan Natural Resources Trust dollars, under the stipulation that it forever remain a quiet, non-motorized recreational trail.

However, state officials never authorized an alternate linking route between Gaylord and Cheboygan to cut through the Pigeon River Country State Forest. Officials then rescinded the Mullett Lake route restriction and made it a designated state snowmobile trail.

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