PARADISE

Region: Tahquamenon & Seney, Grand Marais & Whitefish Point

Opus D3

The private beach of Paradise's Best Western motel.

This remote village on Lake Superior's Whitefish Bay is the nearest town to Tahquamenon Falls, and it's less than 70 miles from the Mackinac Bridge. Fifteen miles due north at Whitefish Point is the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, an increasingly popular destination. Its billboards, aided by the lighthouse craze, create a steady stream of traffic headed for Whitefish Point in peak summer months. Whitefish Point is also known for thousands of migrating birds in spring and fall. In summer, Paradise accommodates many divers who explore This remote village on Lake Superior's Whitefish Bay is the nearest settlement to Tahquamenon Falls. Being about 60 miles from the Mackinac Bridge means Paradise is easy to reach for downstate Michigan visitors. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, the leading destination, is 15 miles due north at Whitefish Point. Because of billboards and the mystique of lighthouses and shipwrecks, in summer and fall a steady stream of traffic heads through Paradise for the even more isolated Whitefish Point. The Whitefish Point Bird Observatory is also widely known for thousands of migrating birds in spring and fall.

IMAGE#Paradise aerial#Paradise was founded in 1925 specifically as a resort community. A zealous promoter named it to attract visitors. Paradise has several motels, resorts, and restaurants strung along M-123 where it parallels Whitefish Bay before veering west to Tahquamenon Falls. Many resorts overlook Whitefish Bay. People came here for its easygoing pace. You can fish for walleye from the end of June to mid-July off the local boat launch dock or at the mouth of the Tahquamenon River south of town. Muskies are prevalent here in the spring.

In summer, Paradise accommodates many divers who explore the shipwrecks of the WHITEFISH POINT UNDERWATER PRESERVE. It extends from Crisp Point near the Two Hearted River mouth east to Point Iroquois and Bay Mills. This is Michigan's largest underwater preserve. Because the water is so cold, wrecks haven't become encrusted by zebra mussels as they are in Lake Michigan. Wrecks are still turning up, like one in only 18' of water. Mike Cook, formerly a dive charter captain, and his wife own and operate the year-round PARADISE GROCERY (906-492-3538) in the middle of town, open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. from Memorial Day through September, to 6 otherwise. Two other options for getting fed in town at off-season times after 8 p.m. are a burger and fries at the Yukon Bar or ordering pizza from PARADISE PIZZA (906-492-3663)—generally open from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. You might want to stock up on some groceries before coming, and get a housekeeping cabin or at least a room with a microwave and minifridge. Excellent bread, reasonably priced, from the North Star Bakery, open daily from 9 to 6, May through October. It's on M-123 5 miles west of the Upper Falls.

On the north edge of Paradise, across from Birchwood Lodge on the west side of Whitefish Point Road, you'll come across pleasant SAWMILL PARK along a creek. It's a nice place for a picnic, with tables, grills, vault toilets, and a little nature walk.

Paradise residents say they're 60 miles from Sault Ste. Marie (where they mainly shop), 60 from St. Ignace, and 40 from Newberry, the nearest town. To spare their children a very long bus ride, Paradise has its own school system, Whitefish Point Community Schools, with 51 pupils K-6. One father chooses to drive from Paradise to a job in Sault Ste Marie just so his children can go to school in this intimate setting.

Snowmobilers can make Paradise as busy in winter as in summer. In a snowy winter, at any one time hundreds of snowmobiles may be parked in town. Look at the Paradise Area Night Riders' snowmobile club site for the Mardi Gras de Snow, the Blessing of the Sleds (with souvenir bumper sticker), and other happenings. PARADISE RECREATION AND SPORTS (906-492-3640) is a gas station and convenience and repair shop for snowmobiles and ATVs.

You can fish for walleye at the mouth of the Tahquamenon River south of town. Muskies are prevalent here in the spring. Visitors to Paradise can overwhelm the town's ability or willingness to handle them. In peak seasons restaurants and lodgings are hard-pressed to keep up with demand. Other times they may not be open at all.

Steve Harmon of Birchwood Lodge saw the area from an outdoorsman's perspective when he moved here. Here's Steve's interesting take on Paradise in fall from when he wrote a newsletter. "After Labor Day the pace in Paradise lessens somewhat. The nights become cooler and the fishing picks up. While those with the bigger boats fish the Bay for whitefish and lake trout, the Tahquamenon River . . . provides the most varied fishing for the average fisherman. The river supports walleye, pike, tiger muskie, perch, and bass. . . . Brook trout streams are available for those who like the bush and hate crowds. Nice rainbow and brown trout are caught at the Upper and Lower Tahquamenon Falls."

Color season is, of course, very beautiful and very busy. "Mid-November can be a very stormy time, and it's now that the Bay gets really interesting," Harmon writes. "It's not an uncommon sight to see ocean-going freighters anchored temporarily a half mile off shore from our resort. The winds blow and the trees bend to the snapping point. You can hear the steady roar of the lake as you walk through town. The skies turn steel gray and the town waits. It's this month that has sent more ships to the bottom of the Bay than at any other time."

Retirees comprise the biggest category of new residents. Some have moved to the area as part of COMPANIONS OF CHRIST THE LAMB, a Catholic wilderness retreat center started by a Detroit priest, Father Jack Fabian. It draws on the long Christian contemplative tradition of seeking a place of solitude in the desert. Individual retreatants camp by themselves or stay in cabins and family housing built by Companions community members in the vicinity or from downstate. "The listening part has been lost in the tradition of prayer," says community member Chuck Rollent. "We recommend a minimum of four days to tune out from everyday life and get to that point of boredom and then listening." Retreats can also be arranged for groups.
There is a beautiful chapel whose glass wall brings the outdoors in. But simplicity, not architecture, is what Companions of Christ the Lamb are all about. The center is open from May through November and by appointment in winter, when snowmobiles are used to get around. There's no electricity, just a generator used for construction projects.

The informational brochure advises retreatants to leave their binoculars, nature guides, and fishing gear at home. Publicity is informal, by word of mouth, never sought. For further information, contact Chuck or Kathy Rollent at (906) 492-3815.

Personalities and background details drawn from Paradise and vicinity played a big part in propelling IBM staffer Steve Hamilton into national prominence as the author of A Cold Day In Paradise, the first in a series of bestselling Alex McKnight detective novels. Publisher's Weekly praised Hamilton's colorful characters, "offbeat locale," and skill turning clichés inside-out, starting with the retired Detroit cop, a loner of course, moving to a place in the woods outside Paradise to manage his father's hunting lodge.

Does cold weather inspire you, Hamilton was asked. He replied, "To me, when I think about ‘hardboiled' or ‘noir,' I think about cold. When just going outside to your car is an act of courage, that has to say something about you already, right? . . . for me there's just something about a frozen lake and a cold wind that will turn you inside-out."

Many Paradise resorts and the picnic area overlook Whitefish Bay, which means that at night they see twinkling lights on the 126 wind turbines of the Prince Wind Farm, northwest of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. A project of Montreal-based Brookfield Power, it occupies 20,000 acres at Grop Cap in Prince Township. It is Canada's third largest wind farm.

Brookfield sells the electricity it generates to the Ontario power grid. Energy, the number-one cost for steel mills, is more expensive in the north, with its lower densities of users. Brookfield was a project partner with Northern Ontario Large Urban Mayors, looking into bioenergy, wind, and other possibilities for meeting the north's energy needs. Hard-pressed Canadian forest products companies had threatened to close because of high energy costs.

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