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While I and my two friends were up at Tahquamenon Falls State Park, we headed north a few miles to the end of the road at Whitefish Point. This point is the Graveyard of the Great Lakes. There have been more shipwrecks here than anywhere else on the Great Lakes. It is the entrance to Whiefish Bay and the St. Mary's River and was where the Edmund Fitzgerals was attemping to get to on the night it sank.

The current lightower is now automated and is still in use. There has been a light at this point for 150 years. If you happen to be up there on a foggy day, you will be treated to the mournful sound of the foghorn sending out it's warning to those on the big lake.

The keepers house and the area surrounding the light are now part of the Great Lake shipwreck Museum. If you have been interested in Maritime History or just want to learn about the Great Lakes and the ships that sail them, sometimes never to be seen again, stop and see this museum.



The light station


The point. As you can see by the debris, it is indeed a treacherous place and extremely dangerous in a violent Lake Superor storm. There is a saying about Lake Superior in that she never gives up her dead.


The point is also a Bird Sanctuary and is a must stop for those who are avid birders. Here is a link to more information on the area

http://www.exploringthenorth.com/whitef ... efish.html

We kids used to wade in Lake Superior near Marquette when we were kids, but it is extremely cold, even in August!

The reason Lake Superior does not give up her dead is that the water is so cold, that bodies do not putrify, so they sink instead of floating to the surface. They also say the only purpose for wearing a life preserver is so that your body can be retrieved. They never found any bodies from the Edmund Fitzgerald, which went down in 30+ foot waves and 60-85 MPH winds.

If you like lighthouses, there are at least 115 to see in Michigan along the four Great Lakes shorelines of the state. (Except another site says Michigan has over 150 lighthouses--don't know which is right, but it is supposed to be more than any other state.) I haven't been to the U.P. (Upper Peninsula) in 20 years, so I guess I need to revisit before I leave the state.

One year my husband and I took a short trip to the Straights of Mackinaw where our friend June had cabins... it was the latter part of September and a nice day at that.. we drove to the UP and went to White Fish point... we started picking up drift wood and before long had been hit by so many high waves that our bodies were numb to the cold... we did get some nice pieces though... needless to say after we got out and went to the car wet clothes and all we were freezing cold and hungry! we could not find a place to eat and had to go all the way back to the lower pen to the cabins and make dinner...
I admire those brave souls that can swim Lake Superior at anytime of year!!
Kathleen

I remember the bone chilling cold when I waded in Lake Superior. Thanks for the memories.

I enjoyed our visit to the museum this summer. Never did stick my toes in Lake Superior tho.

I will have to put Michigan on my list. Another nice area you have shared with us.

I grew up on the waters of Puget Sound and spent part of each summer at Westport on the ocean, which is a commercial and sportsman salmon fishing mecca. That mournfull sound of the fog horns is a favorite of mine and brings back wonderful memories. Sad to say that on the west coast most all of the lighthoues, bouy systems and fog horns are defunct; replaced by GPS systems. I miss it so much. Back in those days, long before GPS and satellites there were times when the fog would roll in and reduce visibility to "nothing" but we worked our way back safely into the harbor from miles out on the ocean. My father was one of those men that could do it all, and in those dangerous conditions he would get us safely back by his knowledge, of charting and using the bell-sound of the buoy system and fog horns. Even that bell-sound was a haunting, glorious and life-saving sound...no longer to be heard. All the men that fished in those days saved their lives time and time again by knowing the craft and art of seamanship....not the operation of an electronic device.

I remember the fog horn on Mackinac Island when we stayed there way back in the late 1950s, but I suspect that fog horns no longer function in Michigan anymore either.

One point for RVs--it is sometimes scary to drive over the Mackinac Bridge if it is windy, but for a small fee, the bridge authority will drive you across. I think my preference would be just to time it for a less windy day. Not usually windy in the summer--just winter!

kdmac wrote:I grew up on the waters of Puget Sound and spent part of each summer at Westport on the ocean, which is a commercial and sportsman salmon fishing mecca. That mournfull sound of the fog horns is a favorite of mine and brings back wonderful memories. Sad to say that on the west coast most all of the lighthoues, bouy systems and fog horns are defunct; replaced by GPS systems. I miss it so much. Back in those days, long before GPS and satellites there were times when the fog would roll in and reduce visibility to "nothing" but we worked our way back safely into the harbor from miles out on the ocean. My father was one of those men that could do it all, and in those dangerous conditions he would get us safely back by his knowledge, of charting and using the bell-sound of the buoy system and fog horns. Even that bell-sound was a haunting, glorious and life-saving sound...no longer to be heard. All the men that fished in those days saved their lives time and time again by knowing the craft and art of seamanship....not the operation of an electronic device.

Off the coast of Plum Island, MA, where I spent my summers every year, there were both a bell buoy that clanged nearly all the time, unless the sea was mill-pond-like, and a moaning buoy that signified stormy seas. I used to be lulled to sleep by both of those sounds, and they remain some of my favorite music on this earth!