- Intersects
- Hemlock Trail · Tamarack Trail · Tamarack Trail Court
- Coordinates
- 45.7509° N, 85.5509° WGoogle Maps: White Cedar TrailDownload KML
- Eras
- Modern era
- Concepts
- transportationtoponymy
- Within
- Beaver Island archipelago
Summary
White Cedar Trail is a named road on Beaver Island’s current OpenStreetMap
map. One held way carries that name, and its geometry is the whole route:
about 558 m. It meets three other named roads, listed under intersects_road.
Despite the name, this is a platted street in the Port St. James subdivision
rather than a recreational trail: it carries “Trail” as a street suffix
alongside neighboring courts and drives, and it is not tagged with the
trails concept for that reason (see Trails and trail-making).
Evidence and limits
The name and the alignment are what mappers last entered, and OpenStreetMap is
volunteered work rather than a survey: it settles neither the right-of-way nor
who maintains the road. Where the name came from is a separate question. Plats,
road-commission minutes, and island memory answer that one. Put an older
spelling from any of them into alt_names or former_names, with the source
that attests it.
Access and ownership
White Cedar Trail has the clearest documented public-road status of the Port St. James “Trail” streets. In December 1998, St. James Township reported that the Charlevoix County Road Commission (CCRC) would hold a public hearing on removing Seasonal Road Status from Font View Court, Garden Island View Road, and White Cedar Trail, “all roads in Port St. James.” In January 1999 the Township reported the outcome: CCRC approved removing seasonal status for the other two roads but withheld it for White Cedar Trail until roadway clearing was done; the Township approved and paid for the clearing, which CCRC then approved. That places White Cedar Trail under county road-commission classification by 1999, with a township, not the Port of St. James Association, paying for the clearing work that satisfied it. The current county parcel snapshot is consistent with this: it carries White Cedar Trail without the “(PVT)” private-road flag it applies to Chipmunk Trail. None of this is a title search, and no source held here documents the underlying right-of-way’s origin or who platted it.
Open questions
- Who platted White Cedar Trail and dedicated its right-of-way? The 1998-99 Road Commission record documents removal of seasonal-road status but not the underlying plat.
- Does the Road Commission’s current road inventory still carry White Cedar Trail as a certified public road, or has its classification changed since the 1999 approval?
If you can answer any of these, or correct anything above, the archive wants to hear it — see Corrections.
Documented associations
These source-backed records provide context for the mapped route:
- Port of St. James subdivision — The Port of St. James subdivision is a late-1960s summer residential development on Beaver Island. The Port of St. James Association describes more than 1,000 properties, shared beaches and recreation facilities, and protective covenants. The dated county parcel snapshot provides a useful road-level bridge: its Port-of-St.-James plat labels co-occur with…
Research status
The local newspaper and website corpus contains exact-name mentions in 0 file(s). Those files are research leads; the relation layer is added only when the surrounding source text establishes that the record involves this road.
Maps for this place
These Atlas plates provide regional context. They do not establish a precise boundary, current ownership, access right, operating status, or field condition.
- EnvironmentSoils, wetlands, hydrography, and terrain
- GeologyGeneralized geology and landforms
- HydrologyMapped water and wetland context
- AccessMapped routes, facilities, and protected areas
- Land surveyPLSS geometry and historic GLO patent-location context
Sources
- Current mapped road name 'White Cedar Trail'; grouped OSM way ids: 17759147. This is a volunteered map record, not a surveyed right-of-way or proof of historical naming.osm · roads
- Reports that the Charlevoix County Road Commission (CCRC) would hold a December 14, 1998 public hearing on removing Seasonal Road Status from Font View Court, Garden Island View Road and White Cedar Trail, described as 'all roads in Port St. James.' This establishes CCRC classification authority over White Cedar Trail as of late 1998, not a final designation.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1999-01_Beaver-Beacon
- Reports that CCRC approved removal of Seasonal Road Status for Font View Court and Garden Island View Road, but withheld it for White Cedar Trail pending roadway clearing; the Township approved and paid for the clearing, which CCRC then approved. This is the only source found that documents a concrete county road-commission action on White Cedar Trail itself, and it implies year-round CCRC road status followed in 1999, not confirmation of who holds the underlying right-of-way.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1999-02_Beaver-Beacon
- Described in this archive: Current named-feature and property join records.Current parcel rows carry the road-name field 'WHITE CEDAR TRL', without the '(PVT)' private-road flag the same snapshot gives Chipmunk Trail (see place/chipmunk-trail), and legal descriptions reading 'PORT ST. JAMES #8 LOT n'. This is consistent with the 1999 CCRC seasonal-road record above but is not itself a title search or ownership record.county · charlevoix · parcels_arcgis · 2026-08-01 · island_parcel_attributes
Added 2 August 2026 · revised 16 August 2026. Recent changes
Cite this article
Beaver Island Archive, “White Cedar Trail”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/places/white-cedar-trail/, accessed [date], citing OpenStreetMap contributors, roads via Overpass API, retrieved 2026-08-01 (ODbL 1.0). (and 3 further sources listed on the page).
Last revised 2026-08-16. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.