Bicycling along the lakeshore on Mackinac Island.
Shipwreck exhibit inside the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, Whitefish Point.
Sunsets seem more colorful as seen from the island.
Lighthouses off the shores of Mackinac Island.
Tagatz. “I think the biggest thing is to come here and slow down.” FromMichigan’s Lower Peninsula, the Mackinac Bridge— clearly seen from the Grand Hotel’s porch—is the gateway to the eastern end of the Upper Peninsula, or U.P. as locals call it. Opened in 1957, 2017 marked the 60th anniversary of the five-mile-long bridge, the third longest in the world. Rich with hardwood maple forests, it’s no surprise that logging and mining remain among the area’s main industries, with boats still transporting wood, copper and iron ore to cities along the Great Lakes. Pounded by harsh and long lake-effect snowy winters, local residents, many of Finnish descent and nicknamed “Yoopers” (rooted from U.P.-ers), have developed their own quirky culture. “We blame nine months of winter for making us the way we are,” jokes Fred Huffman of Marquette Country Tours. “It’s not so much that you were born in the Upper Peninsula, it’s a state of mind.” Favorite pastimes include ice fishing, and unique to the U.P. are so-called “pasties,” dough pockets filled with meat and vegetables. “Stick a pasty on a shovel over a fire and a miner would always have a warm lunch,” quips Huffman.
From the Mackinac Bridge we head north on State Hwy. 123, arriving at Whitefish Point along the southern shores of vast Lake Superior, the largest freshwater body in the world in area. Whitefish Point is home to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, the U.S. Coast Guard’s Life Boat and Light Station with keeper’s quarters, and Lake Superior’s oldest active lighthouse, built in 1861. The Shipwreck Museum exhibits artifacts from 13 shipwrecks—freighters that sank just off the shores in Whitefish Bay. “Fog was a common occurrence particularly in the spring and fall,” notes Huffman. “Before modern navigational equipment, a lot of the accidents were caused by collisions between the boats, not so much rough or high seas.” An exception to that was the SS Edmund Fitzgerald , plummeting to the lake’s cold depths during a storm in November 1975. Hauling 29,000 tons of iron ore to Detroit steel mills, the freighter’s sheer weight apparently took it down after it was slammed by fierce 20 to 35-foot waves. A day later, Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot wrote the “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” practically immortalizing the tragedy. The museum pays tribute to the 29 crewmembers that perished that day. Divers retrieved the Fitzgerald’s bell
MACKINAC ISLAND
COAST TO COAST SPRING MAGAZINE 2018
19
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker