State to buy, raze $18M century-old hunting ranch in Cheboygan County

Michigan’s government is expected to buy the Black River Ranch in Cheboygan County this December.

The state of Michigan has eyed the 8,844-acre property in Forest Township of Cheboygan County and Montmorency Township of Montmorency County for some time.

The property contains 14 miles of frontage along the Black River and the entire Silver Lake. The property includes a ranch house, main lodge, five cabins, a garage, three pole barns, a shooting range and an airstrip — all of which the state of Michigan will flatten.

The state will buy the property for $18 million. The ranch will stay private through December, when the state hopes to close on the property. It’s primarily used for hunting, fishing, and recreation by private members.

Dan Lorimer, a veterinarian ophthalmologist, has hunted birds on the Black River Ranch for nearly 20 years. He is concerned that the state of Michigan won’t give the property the care it received for decades from the 30 to 40 members who hunt, fish, and trap at the private hunting and fishing club.

“They’re going to rip down all the buildings,” Lorimer said about the ranch built in the 1920s. The bucolic property recalls the great rural regions of the Upper Peninsula, though it is located on the Lower Peninsula just hours from Detroit.

During eligible hunting seasons, Michiganders should be able to hunt elk, white-tailed deer, black bear, ruff grouse, woodcocks, and turkeys. Hunters can also trap bobcats, otter, muskrat, beaver, and mink, Lorimer said, adding that hunters have taken care of the forest, managed wildlife, and even restored lakes on the property. But the state might not give the same level of care.

“It takes constant attention to have a healthy pet or a healthy forest and all of the animals inside it,” Lorimer said. “And if you ignore it and think it will just go away, things fester and they get worse. And I think that’s similar to what’s going to occur here.”

State Option by mcclallen

The club offered more, Lorimer said, but the landowner, Arrowhead Properties Corp. in Southfield, had already entered a contract with the state.

If the state buys the nearly 9,000-acre property, schools, emergency services, and the county road system will receive less tax revenue. In Summer 2025, the owner of the six parcels of land paid more than $35,000 in property taxes, according to the property’s tax rolls obtained from the county treasurer.

Cheboygan County Roll Report 2025 Arrowhead Properties Corp by mcclallen

The department has been working on this project since 2019, Kerry Heckman, a forest land administrator, told Michigan Capitol Confidential in a phone interview.

“It’s a pretty significant property. It’s been a very high priority for us for a very long time if it ever became available,” Heckman said. “It’s the largest, most wilderness-type area you’re going to find in the Lower Peninsula,” She noted that the property is located in the core of the elk range. The land is adjacent to the Pigeon River Country State Forest.

The public should be able to use the property once it reopens, Heckman said.

The Black River is a premier brook trout stream and is the only river that is managed exclusively for native brook trout in the Lake Huron basin.

About 61% of the money to purchase the property came from the Federal Forest Legacy Program. Another 31% came from a grant from the Natural Resource Trust Fund. Nonprofits including the Little Traverse Conservancy and the Rocky Mountain Trust Fund also contributed a significant amount, Heckman said.