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AuTrain Bay Home

Come to your vacation home on the ocean right here in the Midwest! This is a comfortable, 3 bedroom, two bath Lake Superior home on plenty of sand frontage. It was designed with style for informal living and easy care and has been beautifully maintained by several owners, all of whom loved living here. And it is ready for you to use this summer!

The location is perfect. AuTrain Bay is a spectacular setting, one of the big, sandy bays of the U.P. It’s right on M28, the best northern highway on Superior's shore and that means easy year round access and use. It is just down the road from the Brownstone Inn, one of the area’s best restaurants, so if you are here on vacation, or retired in the north, or just don’t especially feel like cooking, you can walk across the road to dinner.

The home is designed with high ceilings for airy comfort and easy care. There’s a cathedral Great Room ceiling with cedar paneling and lots of glass looking out on the Bay. The exterior is wide, rough sawn, stained cedar boards. The last time this home was sold the inspector noted that he inspects for a living and sees a lot of homes, but only three or four a year inspect as well as this one. In the last year the roof and some older windows have been replaced and the gardens replanted. Easterly along the beach

It’s not just a nice home; it’s an area where you’d like to be. Nearby Munising has three world-class natural assets: Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, spectacular Grand Island which lies just offshore guarding the entrance to Munising Bay, and the vast and beautiful lands of Hiawatha National Forest that stretch from Lake Superior to Lake Michigan.

Are you a people person? To the west Marquette has Division I sports at NMU (hockey), a first class regional hospital and all city services including scheduled jet service. And beyond the necessities, it was recently picked as one of the best small arts communities in the nation. In short you’ll find Walden-like privacy here in the U.P. with civilization near enough in Marquette when you want it.

“Civilization” means a modern library, playhouse-on-the-bay, museums with interesting history of the north shore, mines and lakes, and some really excellent deli’s and restaurants that will surprise you. Friendly, talented, well-traveled people settled here because they know. Deer feed on your doorstep. It’s Northern Exposure with comforts and convenience. Closer from beach

Close at hand hundreds of square miles of forestlands that are open to your use. The Hiawatha National Forest to the Southeast has hundreds of square miles of forest broken only by old two-track logging trails, so you will never lack for places to hike, camp, snowshoe, cross country, or snowmobile. The area near this home has some very unusual and wonderful natural features including the Alger Ice Caves, Laughing Whitefish Lake, and Laughing Whitefish Falls.

Half a mile to the east the state maintains a launching facility on Lake Superior where you can launch your boat for offshore fishing on the big lake (I just don’t think of it as a lake – it really is an inland sea). Take day tours with friends and family around Grand Island and the Pictured Rocks. This is great sea kayak water. Huge rocks, some the size of a house, lie clearly visible up to 50 feet below the surface in the crystal clear depth. Kayaking has become extremely popular in this area for very good reasons. If you haven’t gotten into that yet local outfitters offer instruction with guided tours of the Pictured Rocks and all the right equipment provided.

Munising Bay just a few miles to the east is great boating water, probably the safest on Lake Superior because of the many islands and bays that offer shelter if the wind kicks up. If you are a sail or power boater when friends come up you have plenty to show them: go for a sail down the face of the Pictured Rocks or find a deserted sand bay on Grand Island. Want a fabulous Lake Superior sand beach for swimming? The State of Michigan has an absolutely spectacular beach a few miles to the east at the mouth of the AuTrain River where the warm river water lets you swim in comfort the surf of the big lake. View westerly

Not that you have to go that far. As you can see from the pictures on this page there’s a perfect sand beach right out the front door. Think of this home as your base of operations for exploring coastal towns and natural wonders in every direction. Sitting on this front porch, with perennial gardens all around and the big lake in front, is about as good as it gets.

Unlike most areas with exceptional natural beauty, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has not been over-developed and will not be. Half of the U.P. is in federal or state ownership, which gives the land permanent protection. The nature Conservancy recently partnered with the state of Michigan and purchased permanent public access to 285,000 acres of forest dotted with lakes and streams. You’ll never lack for room to roam.

Of the remaining privately owned half of the U.P., timber companies own 90% and mostly in square mile blocks. They view these lands as a strategic corporate asset to be held for the long-term production of forest products so unbroken blocks are not sold and divided. Instead they are enrolled under the Commercial Forest Act (“CFA”) in the Commercial Forest Reserve, (“CFR”), which provides a significant tax break in return for 1) holding the lands exclusively for the production of forest products, and 2) allowing public access for hunting, fishing, and outdoor recreation. You will see both “CFA” and “CFR” used to describe these lands. Restaurant w/i walking distance

The bottom line is that upwards of 90% of the U.P. remains wild and open to the public by law. Development is limited to just 10%. Clustered development with surrounding land held open is more reminiscent of the European style than the United States, and it makes for a wonderful lifestyle. So give yourself a treat and come see the U.P. It sings a siren’s song, but it is OK because the reality wears well. Come and you will like it!

The historically low interest rates right now make ownership easy and affordable, and this property is priced right for a quick sale. It won’t last long and we are getting the showings to prove it, so call us now.

This listing has been sold!! View current property listings.

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Disclaimer
The information presented in this web site is and by nature will likely always be a "work in progress" subject to errors, omissions and revision. It is intended as a primer for those interested in buying U.P. real estate and contains personal observations and opinions with which others may disagree. It was obtained from sources deemed reliable, but is not warranted by Dick Huey or Huey Real Estate.