Traverse City closes on 528-acre purchase, expands Brown Bridge Quiet Area

Traverse City has locked in a 528-acre purchase beside the Brown Bridge Quiet Area, a move that enlarges one of Grand Traverse County’s biggest public land holdings and puts more of the Boardman/Ottaway River corridor under long-term city control.

The city said it closed on the property Wednesday, May 27, for $3,098,445. The acquisition expands the Brown Bridge Quiet Area, which city records place at roughly 1,310 acres before the deal, to more than 1,800 acres of protected land southeast of Traverse City.

The purchase depended on a three-part financing structure: a $2,352,200 grant from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund, support from the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, and up to $746,245 from the Brown Bridge Trust Fund after more than 80% of Traverse City voters approved that local match in November 2023. The city said that voter backing was the key step that allowed the deal to close.

Officials are treating the acquisition as more than a land bank. The Brown Bridge Quiet Area has long been managed for quiet recreation, and the new parcel adds a 300-acre wooded lot with existing trails, once part of Camp Greilick, and a 228-acre tract that includes nearly all of Spring Lake. State documents describe the project as the Brown Bridge Quiet Area Spring Lake Expansion, with more than 9,000 feet of frontage on Spring Lake and potential links to the Boardman River Trail, North Country Trail and Muncie Lakes Trail.

The city said hunting will be allowed on portions of the property under grant requirements, but full public access will not open immediately. Additional planning and trail work still have to be finished, and a soft opening of the new trail system is expected within about 90 days. Early access is likely to come from Ranch Rudolf Road and through connections from Grand Traverse County’s Camp Greilick property.

The expansion also adds another chapter to a site with deep city history. Traverse City acquired the original Brown Bridge land in the early 1900s, and the area was formally established as a natural area for quiet recreation by City Commission action in 1977 and again in 1991. A 1992 state trust fund grant helped the city add 70 acres and 2,500 feet of Boardman River frontage to the preserve.

That stewardship burden now grows with the land. The Brown Bridge Quiet Area Management Plan is designed to preserve the natural, scenic and wild character of the property while allowing low-impact public use, and the city has worked with the Grand Traverse Conservation District and the Brown Bridge Advisory Committee on that effort. With the Boardman River system draining about 186,000 acres and stretching roughly 130 linear miles, the new purchase strengthens a corridor whose value extends well beyond one trailhead or one township line.