Copper Harbor, Michigan – 20,000 Bike Tourist in a town of 106

TLDR:

Population: 106

Situation: Town is in a economically hard spot, need to find sustainable income.

Action: Built Mountain Bike Paths.

Result: 20,000 visitors.

Situation

Copper Harbor has been around since around 1843 but officially became a town in the 2010 census. So it just recently became an official town. The city was founded on, drum roll please, copper. Today the town aims to employ creative city developments used by to draw bike tourism to bolster their new cities economic power.

Action

Copper Harbor has what many small towns to work with, natural beauty and land from industry of a by-gone time, BUT they got creative with their development and are doing extremely well. They have 20,000 visitors to a town of 106 people because they made a very unique biking path. Single strack is a elevated platform on single cuts of wood. This is an excellent opportunity for many small businesses to capitalize. Their 35 miles of single track mountain biking trail isn’t going anywhere. Biking is on the rise in general. There is a golden opportunity for a town to pull ahead and stay ahead. Those 20,000 visitors represent a 2 million dollar plus market. Not all bikers are living the #vanlife.

This is not lost on the local residents either. Bike friendly lodging is widely available from campgrounds, bed and breakfasts, and a good old fashioned lodge.

Result

Copper Harbor is poised for long term growth. Their community seems to understand to continue they need to cater to bike tourists. They have built long term infrastructure in terms of bike trails to utilize long into the future. The natural beauty, god-willing, is here to stay. Best of all, it seems to town knows it is a tourist town and succeeding because of it. Copper Harbor is the perfect example of a tiny town doing extremely well.

Another example, for a town of 2,500 – 3,500 a studied showed that a town of this size can support at least 10 restaurants. Copper Harbor supports 6 and have 106 in population.

Into the Future

Copper Harbor should continue on the path it is on. Here are a few tips to make your town more bike friendly:

• Businesses should be accessible by bike path as well as road.
• Places to lock up bikes outside of the buildings should be standard.
• Mountain bikers are good candidates for a hostel.
• Most retail dollars are spent after 6pm for breweries or distilleries are a good possibility.
• A late hours bike shop.
• Public tools stand along paths for bikes.
• Wayfinding on bike paths to make navigation easy.
• They could open some ancillary businesses:
• It looks like kayak and paddle board rental has a strong opportunity here with the location on lake superior and the nearby rivers.
• Boat tours some sort could have an opportunity.
• Copper Harbor would be a great candidate to use wildflower to enhance their curb appeal.

There are other towns using a bike tourism strategies:

• Cuyuna, Minnesota
• Devon, Alberta
• Canmore, Alberta
• Emporia, Kansas
• Bentonville Arkansas