In signing a personal check for $51.38, Lois Bahle of Suttons Bay last week made the last mortgage payment on the Leelanau Trail.

TWO BICYCLISTS going in opposite directions pass each other
on the Leelanau Trail in Elmwood Township Saturday morning.

The 15 mile-long former railroad corridor running from Traverse City to Suttons Bay is now owned outright by Traverse Area Recreation and Transportation (TART) Trails, Inc.

A handful of TART board members and other officials marked the event in a brief ceremony last Wednesday, Sept. 5, at the Fifth Third Bank branch office in Suttons Bay.

“I never would have guessed it would have taken so long,” said Dave Monstrey of Bingham Township, “and didn’t think it would stir up so much controversy.”

Monstrey and Bahle are among those who have been involved with the trail effort since it began with formation of the Leelanau Trails Association (LTA) in 1994. In 1995, the LTA obtained a land contract to purchase the trail from the RLTD Railway Corp. and the Leelanau Scenic Railroad.

The purchase price for the 100-foot-wide right-of-way passing through Elmwood, Bingham and Suttons Bay townships was $625,000. In 2001, TART secured a $300,000 mortgage on the trail.

“I’m a little nervous about telling people that we’ve paid off the mortgage,” said TART Trails executive director Bob Otwell. “I don’t want anyone to be under the mistaken impression that our organization is flush with cash. In fact, we still have ongoing expenses and new donations are needed.”

Monstrey noted that at 100 feet wide and 15 miles long, the Leelanau Trail amounts to an 180-acre parcel of land that has been preserved forever for the people of Leelanau County.

“This corridor is priceless and the greatest contribution we have made may be to future generations,” Monstrey said.

The original land contract on the trail stipulated that it be preserved as a “transportation corridor.” Although the trail’s use is currently limited to “non-motorized” traffic – pedestrians, bicyclists, cross-country skiers and horseback riders – the trail could also be used again for a railroad or some other transportation technology in the future.

“The true benefits of preserving this corridor may not be evident until long after you and I are gone,” Monstrey said. “Who knows what the future will bring? In the meantime, we’ve preserved a beautiful piece of land and a corridor that everyone can enjoy.”

Between 1995 and 1997, the LTA paved the extreme northern section of the trail in the Village of Suttons Bay as well as the lower section of the trail in Elmwood Township. In 1998, TART Trails was formed to include the LTA and three other trail groups in the region. In 1999, another stretch of the trail was paved between Cherry Bend Road and Carter Road in Elmwood Township.

Establishment and preservation of the Leelanau Trail has not come without a struggle – especially in Bingham Township, where officials pursued court cases against the LTA for more than a decade, including two hearings by the Michigan Supreme Court.

In 2001, following the last Supreme Court action, TART began working with Elmwood, Suttons Bay and Bingham townships to adopt the trail into township master plans and zoning ordinances. In Bingham, trail officials were required to submit a special land use permit application which was finally approved by township officials in 2005.

“I and others took a lot of heat in the early days over the trail,” said Monstrey. “People who lived near the trail kept telling me that I wouldn’t appreciate it if the trail went right through my property. But three and a half years ago, I bought a parcel adjacent to the trail on Bingham Road, and I love being in proximity to it,” Monstrey said.