MARQUETTE — A partnership between the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan Army National Guard will see on-the-ground training exercises taking place at the Horseshoe Lake boating access site, which started Wednesday and will continue through Monday.

The National Guard will hold its training activities at the abandoned campground located at Horseshoe Lake. During that time, improvements will be made to Horseshoe Lake Road and the public boating access site.

Improvements include graveling, shaping and crowning the access road to the boating site, which is located south of Republic and west of M-95.

“We are very grateful and proud of the partnership we have with the Michigan National Guard,” said Dan Dowdy, Baraga State Park manager. “This training exercise not only provides a valuable training exercise for the Guard, but benefits our public lands and access to outdoor recreation.”

The program is part of the United States Department of Defense Innovative Readiness Training Program, which creates opportunities to increase the deployment readiness of the National Guard, while simultaneously undertaking projects which are beneficial to public lands.

The project will be under the supervision of the 1432nd Engineer Company out of Kingsford and the 1437th Engineer Company based in Sault Ste. Marie, which are both part of the 107th Engineer Battalion.

The crews will use a wide variety of Army engineer equipment while working on the project.

This isn’t the first U.P. project that’s resulted in the partnership between the DNR and National Guard. In 2020, a similar exercise was completed at the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, which improved several park buildings and completed a substantial road project. The materials for the project will cost an estimated $10,000. Funding will be provided through the Michigan State Waterways Fund, which gets its income from boat registration fees and the Michigan marine fuel tax. The fund helps construction projects, as well as operation and maintenance of public recreational boating activities.

Randy Crouch can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 242. His email address is rcrouch@miningjournal.net.