Kalkaska Data Center, Kalkaska Township, Michigan

Rocklocker proposed a multi-billion-dollar data center with its own power plant on 1,440 acres of state land near Island Lake and South River roads in Kalkaska County, Michigan, and dropped it in November 2025 after three days of public backlash. Matt Rine, whose work is focused on carbon sequestration, put it forward through a consortium called Kalkaska Go, hoping it could run with net-zero carbon emissions. Rine told residents the project would create work and tens of millions of dollars a year in tax revenue, and that the region's geology suited a data center using carbon capture to reach net zero. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources had already refused Rocklocker's earlier request to buy the state land.

The first forum, at Garfield Township Hall in Fife Lake on Monday, November 17, 2025, drew a packed crowd, and most who spoke opposed the project. One attendee told the presenters: "We're gonna fight like hell, so y'all should stop. It's gonna be expensive." Willow Lund, who is 17 and from Kalkaska, asked: "What are our other land options other than pulling down a forest?" Ryan Harper asked how much the cooling would raise the temperature of the ground, the groundwater and the springs that keep the Boardman River cool. Another man said he could hear DTE Energy's Kalkaska compressor facility from his house: “we're probably five miles away as the crow flies from there.”

State Sen. Jon Bumstead sat in the front row and told the crowd: “The DNR does not plan on selling or leasing any of that land over there.” Sen. Michele Hoitenga said in a statement that she stood “in firm opposition of this project,” and Rep. Ken Borton reposted an article about it with the message “Not on my watch!” Residents also worried about what would be left behind, citing companies that had come to the area before and gone, leaving scars on the landscape.

On Thursday, November 20, Rine announced: “And we heard you. That is why my company and Kalkaska Go will end its pursuit of a data center.” A second statement said concerns about building on public lands were “significant and, ultimately, decisive,” and that some feedback had been “personally distressing to Rocklocker personnel and their families.” The last forum, at the Coldsprings Township Branch Library in Mancelona, was cancelled; the state land stays with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, which would have had to agree to any sale or lease.