Location Details

This 120 acre sanctuary was purchased in 2018 using funds donated by Sharon E. Johnson. The sanctuary borders the John J. Helstrom Memorial Nature Sanctuary on the southern side and shares its southwest corner point with the Klipfel Memorial Nature Sanctuary. The sanctuary was acquired to expand on the concept of the Brockway Mountain Wildlife Corridor which is a vision shared with numerous other partners near the tip of the Keweenaw.

Sharon E. Johnson was originally a native of the Upper Peninsula and a lifelong naturalist who taught biology in the Flint Public Schools. Ms. Johnson conducted butterfly counts for MNA at the Dauner Martin Nature Sanctuary and for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources in Gogebic County. As a result of natural experiences throughout her life she developed a lifelong desire to protect and care for natural areas, including Brockway Mountain, which led to the gift to help purchase the sanctuary.

The sanctuary is located to the north of Brockway Mountain Drive with a northerly exposure facing Lake Superior. The vegetation is dwarfed by the grueling winds and inhospitable climate. This semi-alpine habitat has a magnificent covering of grasses, sedges, creeping ground covers and small shrubs with flowers that thrive in the full sunlight. Heart-leaved arnica (Arnica cordifolia) an endangered Michigan species, thrives in the dry, alkaline conditions provided by the calcite-bearing conglomerate rock on Brockway Mountain. Numerous other unusual plants have been documented on Brockway Mountain and efforts to better survey the flora of the sanctuary would be justified.

For additional information, contact the MNA office at (866) 223-2231. 

How to Get There:

From Eagle Harbor, follow M-26 north past the Silver River picnic area, and turn right onto Brockway Mountain Drive. Travel several miles to the Brockway Mountain Summit Lookout. Continue past the lookout and the sanctuary is located just to the northeast of MNA’s Klipfel Memorial Nature Sanctuary and directly north of the John J. Helstrom Memorial Nature Sanctuary. This sanctuary is accessed via access easement or through the trail system which passes through the John J. Helstrom Memorial Nature Sanctuary.