Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum

     The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum is very logically located at Whitefish Point. This point of land is at the extreme southeastern end of Lake Superior. It is a critical turning point for ship traffic entering and leaving Lake Superior. The Whitefish Point Light Station is the oldest operating lighthouse on Lake Superior. The present light tower was built in 1861. 

Whitefish Point is the end of an 80-mile stretch of shoreline stretching west to Munising, Michigan, which is known as Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast. Of the 550 known major shipwrecks lying on the bottom of Lake Superior, at least 200 of them are in the vicinity of Whitefish Point.  the Light Statio is now a museum which documents the incredible history of the Coast Guard rescue team stationed at this hazardous point.  One of the many amazing facts that we learned today as we toured the museum was that a large number of the shipwrecks were due to collisions with other vessels rather than due to storms or running into the rocks.  The heavy storms, dark nights, and poor navigation tools created situations where boats simply were not aware of another boat nearby until it was too late.

I was very impressed with the 95% successful rescue rate of the station over the many years it has been in service.   We saw replica of the “light” weight wooden boats that were rowed out into the cold Lake Superior waters and bring stranded sailors back to shore.  Old fashioned life vests had sections of cork for buoyancy rather than the current kaypoch.  The cork is much bulkier, but as the guide pointed out, a cork vest will keep you afloat for a week, the new ones only work for a couple days.  It doesn’t matter in Lake Superior because you will die from the cold water long before you sink.

The museum participated in recovering the ship’s bell from the sunken Edmund Fitzgerald.  We watched a video that reinacted the sinking of the largest ship on Lake Superior.  I remember very well the news stories at the time of the sinking and thinking how terrible the storms on the big lake could be.

"The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down, Of the big lake they called 'gitche gumee'
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead, When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more, Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and crew was a bone to be chewed, When the gales of November came early"  Gordon Lightfoot

We have virtually no cell phone service at this campground.  We are trying to plan our route to our next stop at Sault Ste. Marie in Canada.  This creates a number of problems.  I can’t look at the route on my smartphone – no phone service.  I won’t be able to use the smartphone in Canada until I agree to additional charges on my Verizon account, but I can’t get to the account with no WIFI and no cell service.  We stopped and had lunch in a little town, Paradise, that had some cell phone service.   We could see the route, but I couldn’t get the route to download so I can see it when we are in Canada.

At the end of the day we hiked out to the top of the Upper Falls on Tequamanon River which is one of the largest waterfalls east of the Mississippi.  We really

enjoyed the perfect weather.   Once we returned to the camper we dug through cabinets and found paper maps.  We may have to do our navigating the “old” way tomorrow.  The campground is pretty full tonight as the weekend nears.  The fall colors and the perfect weather are drawing everyone outside.