Michigan’s newest campground will showcase popular Marquette cliff, 'The Rock Cut'

• A new campground, Kona Hills, opened Friday just outside Marquette
• The campground will bring legal access to a popular local landmark known as 'The Rock Cut' when an observation deck is built
• The campground was founded by three local friends

It was raining as Jeremy Johnson and his wife walked to the edge of a 200-foot cliff overlooking Lake Superior in Chocalay Township, just outside Marquette. 

To locals like Johnson, who grew up in the area, the spot is known as “The Rock Cut.” 

“If you’re seeing a Pure Michigan ad for Marquette, you’re seeing people jumping off Black Rocks, you’re seeing people hiking up Sugar Loaf. This is just as iconic as those moments and those natural features, but the access has been blocked off,” Johnson said.

For decades, the former quarry was privately owned and the only way people could get to the cliff was if they found a way onto the land as trespassers. 

That’s going to change soon. 

Johnson and his buddies, Devin Mahoney and Tim Piirala, also from the area, officially opened Kona Hills Campground on Friday. The 80-acre site includes 40 rustic camping spots, an artesian well and portable bathrooms until more permanent vault toilets can be installed. 

The campground also includes the Rock Cut, which will be open to campers and the general public once a safe viewing platform is built. The owners hope that will happen by early October, in time for peak fall colors. 

“To me, this will never be ours,” Johnson said, standing at the top of Rock Cut. “This will be for Marquette County.”

Harder than opening a dispensary

The three friends purchased the property for $400,000 in 2020. It’s been a long road to get the campground opened.

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“I've opened probably two dozen (marijuana) dispensaries in the state of Michigan with different companies, and it was harder to open a campground than it was to open any of those dispensaries,” Johnson said.

Spanning three different municipalities  — Marquette, Sands Township and Chocolay Township — Johnson said he and his partners had to attend a lot of public meetings. Getting commercial access to the campground was a multi-year process.

“It's been difficult,” Johnson said. “Initially, there was a good amount of pushback … There’s pushback in general on tourism. There's a general sentiment in Marquette County that, you know, ‘We don't want to become the next Traverse City.’”

While Johnson admits tourism can be problematic — short-term rentals have contributed to rising home costs in Marquette — he hopes the campground will decrease that strain a little bit, and he said tourism is a way to bring economic benefits to the Upper Peninsula that aren’t as extractive as other industries like mining or logging. 

‘We wish them well’

Mary Kay Johnson and her husband, Carl — no relation to Jeremy Johnson — own property next to Kona Hills and have enjoyed wandering over to the Rock Cut for years. 

“We would go up there maybe once a year on our four-wheelers. If we had company, we’d take them up there,” Mary Kay Johnson said. “It's spectacular. You're seeing the south shore of Lake Superior. You can see for a long way. It’s beautiful.”

Johnson said that, when she and her husband first found out that the property had been bought and was going to be turned into a campground, they were a little sad. 

“There was an initial sense of loss,” she said.

They had concerns about fire risk and trespassing, but those have gone away now that the Kona Campground owners have built a fire suppression pond and posted signs on the property border. 

Now, Mary Kay Johnson said she supports the campground. 

“They’ve done a great job of upgrading,” she said. “We wish them well.”