Lake Superior + Saux Head Lake

People find it difficult to choose between the serenity of an inland lake and the drama of Lake Superior. An inland lake offers warm water swimming and water sports, sailing, canoeing, fishing and serenity. Superior's beauty is on a different scale: dramatic and grand! Gulls bank and dive overhead, storm clouds sweep across the lake, crashing waves wash the shore and ore boats pass in the night, bound for distant ports.

This is a setting that changes with your mood: majestic and grand, or peaceful and residential. To the north is what landscape architects call the "limitless dimension" of Lake Superior, the greatest of the Great Lakes, an inland sea of crystal blue water. To the south lies quiet Saux Head Lake, a Huron Mountain lake. The land between these lakes is high, peaceful, and beautiful with old growth red and white pines, mixed hardwoods, and long views of sandy beaches. And above it all you hear the soft sigh of wind in the pines.

The cedar-sided home has a large living/dining/kitchen area with a fireplace, three bedrooms, three baths, and 1,697 square feet of net livable area. You can download the Floor Plan here. The furnishings, except for some personal items, are negotiable. Some will find it perfect as a getaway or to use until the time is right to build. Others will see it as a bit out of date and perhaps an under-improvement for this great building site. So if you are looking for a site for you own dream home here is another option: a contractor has expressed interest in moving the house from the building site at modest or no cost to the purchaser. Either way this land is usable year round as your seasonal home or first home.

"Under all is the land" and this property, Parcel #13 of the Saux Head Point Association, has 700 feet of frontage: 200 feet facing the sunsets in the west on a quiet inland lake with granite hills sand beaches, and 500 feet facing the sunrise to the east over Lake Superior. Saux Head is a 3/4-mile long, 137-acre Huron Mountain lake with some 18-foot deep water and granite hills along the southern shore. Superior is an inland ocean, with 10% of earth's fresh water.

The combination of a scenic mountain lake and Lake Superior, with high, beautifully timbered land between, is very rare. It is in fact unique, as you'll quickly confirm by looking at Google Earth or a map. I have seen nothing else like it in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and looking at the map I believe there is nothing like it.

The rugged Huron Mountains protect a wilderness that extends 50 miles to the west. This is the wildest land in Michigan, and many believe it is the most beautiful. The Huron Mountains are cherished and defended by those who love big, wild land.

This land was originally part of Louis Kaufman's "Granot Loma," a property from the last century that is often called "Michigan's Biltmore Estate." The Saux Head Point Association purchased and divided it into seventeen large parcels. Association fees are $1,000/year. Each parcel includes an interest in the 640-acre common area of forest, a common access site on Saux Head Lake, and a full mile of vacant Lake Superior frontage to the north. It is difficult to put a value on the privacy afforded by this large amount of undeveloped land and lakeshore held in common, but one thing is clear: It's good!

Saux Head Point Association rules provide that parcels may be used as a residence for a single family, that there shall be no more than two dwellings, and that no parcel shall be subdivided or used for commercial activity. Dwellings must be at least 50 feet from the top of the lake bank, and no dwelling or outbuildings shall be constructed within 75 feet of either side of a parcel. These are owner friendly restrictions that preserve the value of all the land within the Association.

Marquette the Upper Peninsula's largest city with great restaurants and shopping just 20 minutes to the south. Marquette has the regional hospital, regional airport, regional seaport, and a variety of city services and cultural activities. There are Division I sports (hockey) at Northern Michigan University, an excellent downhill ski area, Marquette Mountain, and an excellent harbor for big-water boating. Surfers enjoy the breakers on Superior from spring through the end of the year(!), when ice increases the danger.

The Marquette area has received national publicity as one of the nation's "Most Livable Communities." The Noquemanon 12k cross-country ski trail system above the north shore of Saux Head Lake winds through rugged Huron Mountain land and is one of the best winter trails in the area. Bike Magazine called Marquette to be one of "The 5 Best Places to Live & Ride." There's endless room for snowmobiling, cross county skiing, fishing, hunting, exploring and plain wandering with friends or, if you choose, very much all by yourself.

The 30-mile shoreline between Marquette and Big Bay appears lightly developed from Hwy. 550. In fact the lakeshore is home to the largest collection of high-end homes on the Lake Superior shore. From Marquette, invisible from the road, you will find them at Middle Bay, Middle Island Point, Partridge Bay, Granot Loma, Saux Head, Lake Independence, Squaw Beach, and just north of Big Bay, at the Huron Mt. Club. There is nothing else like that in the U.P. Go west of Hwy 550 and you'll discover one of the largest remaining areas without electric power or paved roads. This is one of the great snowmobiling destinations in the U.P.

Out of town this country feels like a frontier, and bald eagles, pileated woodpeckers, moose, black bears and timber wolves support that impression, but it is minutes from the U.P.'s largest city. There is a wind today out on Superior, and I can hear the lake. It's a wonderful place to live and you should see it. Mother Nature conditions the air, and it smells of pine.

$890,000

More Information About This Listing
SHPA#13 Plat/Map
Floor Plan

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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.