L'Anse-Lac Vieux Desert Trail

L'Anse-Lac Vieux Desert Trail is a Michigan historical marker in L'Anse, Baraga County, dedicated 1985.

Bishop Baraga Shrine, Lambert Road, L'Anse

Get directions ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

Near this spot ran the L’Anse-Lac Vieux Desert Trail, which crossed the interior of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan from L’Anse on Keweenaw Bay to Lac Vieux Desert on the Wisconsin border. The trail was used in prehistoric times by native Americans traveling to visit, hunt, or trade. Father René Ménard may have followed this route in 1661 as he traveled south from Keweenaw Bay, a trip from which he never returned. The trail was later used by fur traders, early surveyors, and homesteaders. L’Anse and Lac Vieux Desert bands of Chippewa Indians used this trail into the twentieth century. Today, many segments of the L’Anse-Lac Vieux Desert Trail are unpaved roads that can be traveled by car.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1817 · North Western and MichiganTerritories. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1852 · Wisconsin (Cowperthwait, 1852) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1855 · Colton's Wisconsin (1855) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1937 · Forest and park activity map as of December 15, 1937 : [Wisconsin] (Northwestern University Libraries)
Harvard University, Harvard Map Collection, G4120_1820_W3 (Harvard Library, Harvard Map Collection)

North Western and MichiganTerritories, 1817, covering the location of L'Anse-Lac Vieux Desert Trail, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — North Western and MichiganTerritories, 1817, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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Marker data: Michigan History Center
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L'Anse-Lac Vieux Desert Trail

Historical maps covering this location

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