Fred Meijer White Pine Trail State Park is a long

linear Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship (''function'') that can be graphically represented as a straight line. Linearity is closely related to '' proportionality''. Examples in physics include rectilinear motion, the linear r ...

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. The trail extends from northern

Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

Cadillac The Cadillac Motor Car Division () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) that designs and builds luxury vehicles. Its major markets are the United States, Canada, and China. Cadillac models are distributed i ...

, and it lies on the path graded for the

Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad at its height provided passenger and freight railroad services between Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Straits of Mackinac in Michigan, USA. The company was formed on January 18, 1854. Beginnings After grappl ...

(later absorbed by the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

). The White Pine Trail is a

rail trail A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetcar ...

park. It was named the "Fred Meijer White Pine Trail State Park" after a donation by grocery store executive

Fred Meijer Frederik Gerhard Hendrik Meijer (December 7, 1919 – November 25, 2011) was an American billionaire businessman who was the chairman of the Meijer hypermarket chain, headquartered near his former hometown in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Early life ...

History

As the railroad ceased operation in the mid-1980s, the

Michigan Department of Transportation The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is a constitutional government principal department of the US state of Michigan. The primary purpose of MDOT is to maintain the Michigan State Trunkline Highway System which includes all Interstate ...

came to own the rail bed. By 1994 the property was transferred to the

Michigan Department of Natural Resources The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is the agency of the state of Michigan charged with maintaining natural resources such as state parks, state forests, and recreation areas. It is governed by a director appointed by the Governor a ...

(DNR), which began replacing the rails with a trail for public recreational use.

Current Condition

The trail extends from Ann Street in Grand Rapids north to Cadillac. The trail has only one unpaved section: one extending between Howard City and Big Rapids. This unpaved section of the trail is surfaced with packed gravel or

cinder Cinder is an alternate term for scoria. Cinder or Cinders may also refer to: In computing *Cinder (programming library), a C++ programming library for visualization *Cinder, OpenStack's block storage component * Cyber Insider Threat, CINDER, a ...

s. Snowmobiles are permitted on most of the trail, between Russell Road (near Cedar Springs) and South Street in Cadillac. Motorized wheel vehicles (other than personal accessibility devices) are not permitted. In addition to the Michigan DNR doing maintenance on the trail, volunteers, organized by Friends of the White Pine Trail

also provide hundreds of volunteer hours of maintenance and advocacy work.

Communities Along Trail

The trail passes through the following communities: *

Comstock Park, Michigan Comstock Park is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 10,088 at the 2010 census. The community is located within Alpine Township to the west and Plain ...

* Belmont, Michigan *

Rockford, Michigan Rockford is a city in Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 5,719 at the 2010 census. Located along the Rogue River, the city is part of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area and is about north of the city of Grand Rapi ...

Cedar Springs, Michigan Cedar Springs is a city in Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 3,509 at the 2010 census. Cedar Springs is a northern city of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area and is about north of Grand Rapids. History The area w ...

Sand Lake, Michigan Sand Lake is a village in Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 522 at the 2020 census. History The village of Sand Lake was founded in 1869 in northern Kent County and has long served as a bedroom community about north ...

* Pierson, Michigan * Howard City, Michigan *

Morley, Michigan Morley is a village in Deerfield Township, Mecosta County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 493 at the 2010 census. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , of which is land and i ...

Stanwood, Michigan Stanwood is a village in Mecosta County of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 211 at the 2010 census. The village is within Mecosta Township. Stanwood holds the record for the hottest recorded temperature in the state of Michigan a ...

Big Rapids, Michigan Big Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 10,601 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Mecosta County. The city is located within Big Rapids Township, but it is politically independent. Big Rapids is home o ...

* Paris, Michigan *

Reed City, Michigan Reed City is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 2,425 at the 2010 census. It is located in southwestern Osceola County and is the county seat. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total ar ...

* Ashton, Michigan * Le Roy, Michigan *

Tustin, Michigan Tustin is a village in Osceola County of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 230 at the 2010 census. The village is within Burdell Township. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , ...

Cadillac, Michigan Cadillac ( ) is a city in and county seat of Wexford County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 10,371 at the 2020 census, which ranks it the third most-populated city in the Northern Michigan region after Traverse City and Alp ...

Waypoints

Waypoint A waypoint is an intermediate point or place on a route or line of travel, a stopping point or point at which course is changed, the first use of the term tracing to 1880. In modern terms, it most often refers to coordinates which specify one's posi ...

s for the Fred Meijer White Pine Trail State Park.White Pine Trail State Park

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) is an American nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that works with communities to preserve unused rail corridors by transforming them into rail trails within the United States. RTC's purpose is to c ...

(Free registration required to view map) ↑ in the Distance column points to the other waypoint that the distance is between.

Plans

The trail is also connected to other trail systems in the state, including the Kent Trails system in Grand Rapids (currently connected with a designated bike route through the city between Butterworth Ave SW and the Lake Michigan Credit Union Ballpark,) Musketawa Trail, much as the White Pine Trail already connects with the

Pere Marquette State Trail The Pere Marquette State Trail is a bicycle and multi-use trail in lower Michigan, running through Clare, Lake, and Osceola Counties. Intersecting with the White Pine Trail in Reed City, the trail is paved in areas, with a ballast or cinder sur ...

in Reed City.

References

External links

The White Pine Trail - TheRockfordNetwork.comFriends of the White Pine Trail

{{authority control Rail trails in Michigan State parks of Michigan Protected areas of Kent County, Michigan Protected areas of Montcalm County, Michigan Protected areas of Mecosta County, Michigan Protected areas of Osceola County, Michigan Protected areas of Wexford County, Michigan U.S. Route 131 Bike paths in Michigan Hiking trails in Michigan