• A study found Mount Curwood is 4.7 inches taller than Mount Arvon, Michigan’s official natural high point
• No government agency has officially recognized the study’s claim about Michigan’s highest peak
• Some highpointers are hiking both summits while the dispute remains unresolved

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It’s been almost a year since a study challenged Michigan’s long-established highest peak, but the study’s author can’t get his work officially acknowledged by the government or mountain climbing groups.

For more than 40 years, Michigan’s tallest peak has been known as Mount Arvon in the Upper Peninsula’s Huron Mountains in Baraga County. But a researcher last year said the state’s highest point is the nearby Mount Curwood.

“I can say with greater than 95% confidence that Curwood is taller than Arvon based on the statistics of my measurements” said Eric Gilbertson, a teaching professor at Seattle University and an author of the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment.

But the study’s results have not been officially acknowledged, in part because it’s unclear who updates the record of the US’ tallest peaks. The study’s claim has implications for people who try to tackle tall peaks and for those who market Michigan’s high point. 

Mount Curwood was actually thought to be the tallest point in Michigan leading up to 1982, when the US Geological Survey measured it and Mount Arvon. At that time, surveyors determined Mount Arvon, at 1,979.24 feet, was 11 inches taller than Mount Curwood.

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But Gilbertson said the USGS measures to and from markers (sometimes called “marks” or “monuments”), which are often metal circles with the height, year and some other details engraved in them. 

When he went to measure the two Michigan peaks, he found the USGS marker for Mount Arvon was mounted on a concrete pillar sticking up about 6 inches above the mountain’s actual peak. The USGS marker on Mount Curwood was about 6inches lower than nearby bedrock, meaning it was below the actual peak. 

When he measured each mountain’s height from what he considered their actual high points, he determined Mount Curwood was 4.7 inches taller than Mount Arvon.

So Michigan’s natural high point should be considered Mount Curwood again, right?

Well, Gilbertson said “in the US there is currently no body that will officially change a mountain elevation.” He said he tried contacting USGS but was told that they haven’t updated mountain elevations since 2015. 

Bridge reached out to USGS for this story and did not receive a response, but for a Bridge story about Mount Arvon last year, the agency said: “The USGS cannot give you an authoritative response to your questions because NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey is the arbiter of official highest points, not the USGS.”

Gilbertson said he also contacted the National Geodetic Survey and they told him they weren’t responsible for mountain elevations, only survey marker elevations. The National Geodetic Survey confirmed that with Bridge.

“So, what I’ve done is I publish my findings in scientific journal articles. I feel like that’s about the only way to make it official,” Gilbertson said.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources said it doesn’t track the state’s high points and referred calls to USGS.

Gilbertson said he also reached out to the Highpointers Club in the US, a group that holds a list of high peaks and acknowledges people who reach all of them. But they told him they’re only going to replace Mount Arvon with Mount Curwood if the USGS makes the switch.  

“It’s kind of like a chicken and egg situation,” Gilbertson said.

Bridge reached out to the Highpointers Club’s leadership and did not receive a response, but former board member Stony Burk said,“We’re not going to change it. We just use the USGS, whatever their latest data is, and we post it every year in our magazine.”

The study has, however, gotten into the heads of some people who are working to hike the tallest peaks in each state.

“A lot of the people I know that have done Arvon, several have gone back this summer and done Curwood, just to be sure,” Burk said. 

Montreal resident Serge Massad is a highpointer who’s hiked the tallest points in each US state and summited Mount Arvon for Michigan. Now that the news is out that Mount Curwood might be taller, he said he’ll need to go back and summit that peak.

“For me, it’s like an extra adventure, basically just going back and discovering this new area,” he said. “So I’m pretty happy about it.”

Tracey Barrett works for the Village of L’Anse and was formerly the executive director of the Baraga County Convention and Visitors Bureau. In her former role, she started offering certificates to people who stopped into the visitors bureau and proved with a photo they had made it to the top of Mount Arvon. 

She does not like the idea of Mount Curwood being considered the state’s high point.

“Mount Curwood, the landowners I don’t think would ever let it become what Mount Arvon is today,” she said.

The Baraga County Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Highpointers Foundation, past land owners and others have worked to improve the experience of visiting Mount Arvon.

There’s little cell service on the logging roads that lead to the trailhead parking lot, so blue diamond signs mark the route from L’anse, there’s a bench at an overlook near the top, and at the summit sits a picnic table and a mailbox with a logbook inside that visitors can sign. 

“Years ago, I put signs up to go to Curwood, and the landowners — I don’t remember who they were — it sold, and the new ones went and took all my signs down,” she said. 

According to federal documents disclosing foreign ownership of agricultural land, Mount Curwood is registered to the Rohatyn Group and ultimately owned by the government of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. As Bridge formerly reported, Singapore owns 5% of the UP. Bridge reached out to the Rohatyn Group with questions about public access to Mount Curwood, but did not receive a response.

Gilbertson made it up there in 2024 for his study. Like Mount Arvon, he said it involved taking logging roads, but there’s no parking lot. 

“You just kind of squeeze on the side of the road,” he said.

The short trail to the top was less defined than Mount Arvon’s, he said, but “it’s easy enough to follow. I think people take four wheelers up there.” 

But there was no view along the trail or at the top.

When asked which summit he preferred, Gilbertson said he liked that Mount Arvon had a view, but he preferred the mountain he found to be taller. 

“Curwood is slightly trickier to get to because of the bad roads, which makes it a little more interesting for me,” he said.

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