Trail Overview
Old Headquarters Lake Road is a state owned/ locally maintained, Level-2/ Level-3, forest access route with a surface composition of sand, dirt, gravel and native material (ex: leaves, pine needles, pine cones, sticks, branches). This spur offers access to forested "Two-Tracks", Hiking and Equestrian trails within the deep wilderness along the southern bank of Old Headquarters Lake.
Difficulty
Sand, dirt, gravel route typically unmaintained after rain or snow that may give rise to water crossings over 12 inches and obstacles such as tree/ tree branches and river overflow crossings.
History
The history of Headquarters Lake near Newberry, Michigan, is deeply rooted in the region's late-19th-century logging boom, when the area served as a pivotal operating hub for timber extraction in the Lake Superior State Forest. In the early 1880s, the village of Newberry was established largely as the primary logging headquarters for industrial operations like the Vulcan Furnace Company. As lumbermen pushed further north toward Lake Superior to access vast stands of white pine, secondary encampments, supply stations, and logging headquarters were established deep in the woods. The water body known as Headquarters Lake derived its name from being the physical location of one of these remote logging headquarters. The lake provided essential water access for camps that managed regional timber harvests, timber cutting, and the land transport of logs before they were sent down rivers or via the emerging railroad networks.
Offroad