STATE OF THE TRAIL
The Many Lives of the Birch Grove School House By Charles Chandler
The interior of the school house turned studio
W
ho doesn’t love a picturesque one-room school house? One that you know contains so many memories and local history? Like that white, 100-yearold Birch Grove School House sitting at the corner of North Felch Avenue and West 5 Mile Road in White Cloud, Michigan. The new owners, Margie Moran and her family, are some for sure. The early history of the School House when it housed students of the local farming and logging families is better told by their descendents. The history chapter that most of us hikers are familiar with begins when the beloved Genny and Art Wunch and other hikers rescued the derelict building and had it moved to its current location, where the repurposing and renovations began. The Birch Grove School House would soon become the Headquarters for the North Country Trail Association (NCTA). It is located about a mile and a half from the actual Trail. Don’t know if Ginny Wunsch and crew planned it or not but the School House is located at the halfway point of that 4600-mile trail. As the NCTA organization grew, they needed more space and access to utilities and technology. They relocated to downtown Lowell and the local Western Michigan Chapter of the NCTA assumed operations and maintenance of the School House. The School House “did well by the Chapter.” This author and wife Dianne were for a time the School House caretakers. I helped maintain the building and the grounds. Dianne managed the public relations and reservations side of the operations. It was kind of like managing an Air B&B property. We took the operations seriously because the place meant so much to so many people. However, it was a case study of diminishing returns.
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The North Star
It was still in great shape but as we all know things change. The use and subsequent rental revenues declined while operating expenses increased, and the Chapter membership aged and participation declined. A heartfelt business decision had to be made. Many locals and members of the Chapter had concerns about what would become of our School House. Andrea Ketchmark, NCTA Executive Director, issued the following letter to the membership: “For close to 40 years, the Birch Grove School house has served the North Country Trail community in many ways, first as the Association’s headquarters, and more recently as a meeting spot for the Western Michigan Chapter and rental property for trail crews and visitors. It’s been managed by the Western Michigan Chapter for more than 20 years and although it’s been a source of pride for the Chapter and NCTA, it’s also introduced challenges and has diverted both time and funds from NCTA’s mission of building, maintaining, protecting and promoting the NCT.” On September 18, 2019, the Western Michigan Chapter of the NCTA decided by unanimous vote that they could no longer manage the
