Parks & Recreation Five Year Recreation Plan ... - City of Marquette

Parks and Recreation Master Plan Update 2011
City of Marquette
There are approximately 20 acres of campground space with one hundred-ten (110) camping
sites. Fifty-eight (58) sites provide upgraded electrical hookups, four (4) have water and electric
service, and thirty-eight (38) sites have electric, water and sewer service to accommodate RVs
and trailers. The remaining sites are designated for primitive style tenting. Each camping site
has a picnic table and barbeque pits are scattered throughout the campground.
Campground facilities also include hot showers,
restrooms/flush toilets, sanitary dump station and
paved roads. The campground has a softball
diamond with spectator seating, a small playground,
cooking facilities, grassy open space, hiking trails,
drinking fountains, and two large picnic areas.
These facilities are often used by the community for
reunions and company picnics.
Tourist Park included a beach on a reservoir formed
on the Dead River until a 2003 washout of an upstream dam at the Silver Lake Basin destroyed
the dam and drained the reservoir near Tourist Park. However, in the spring of 2011, the
Marquette Board of Light and Power started a 4.8 million dollar project to reconstruct the dam
and restore beach areas adjacent to Tourist Park and create about 13 acres of wetland habitat.
The project is on schedule to be completed in June of 2012.
Tourist Park is the site of the annual Hiawatha Music Festival.
Heartwood Forestland Property
In 2005, the City of Marquette made a bold and unusual purchase of undeveloped rugged land
from the Heartwood Forestland Group. This acquisition, totaling 2,385 acres of land along its
south border, included property located in Sands and Marquette Townships. The land is highly
suitable for hiking, mountain biking and other outdoor recreational pursuits. The acquisition is
considered a key to promote and develop these growing recreational values for the citizens of
the region and for tourism development.
In 2009 the City Commission established the Heartwood Forestland Ad-Hoc Committee to study
the property and identify potential development areas, identify areas for conservation and
identify partnerships for the development and maintenance of recreational properties. In the
committee‘s report, they recommended approximately 930 acres for development,
approximately 1,063 acres for conservation and public recreation, and approximately 250 acres
for deferred development.
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