Region 11:

Tahquamenon & Seney, Grand Marais & Whitefish Point

FOUR MAJOR ATTRACTIONS of Upper Peninsula tourism are in this part of the Eastern Upper Peninsula:
♦ majestic upper and lower falls in Tahquamenon Falls State Park
♦ the evocative Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum & Whitefish Point Light Station
♦ Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore just west of Grand Marais,
♦ the vast Seney National Wildlife Refuge, a destination for birders, nature-lovers, paddlers, mountain-bikers.

This part of the eastern Upper Peninsula has many lakes, streams, and wetlands. The Two Hearted and the Fox Rivers, legendary trout streams, rise in the interior wetlands, as does the Tahquamenon River, which creates the great falls. The three Manistique lakes, on either side of Curtis and Helmer, are good fishing lakes, rimmed by cottages in parts. In the middle of it all is Newberry, originally a lumber town from around 1900. With some 2,692 people in the village and township, it's the area's biggest population centers by far.

The Lake Superior shore here, exposed to north winds from Canada, is justifiably called "the shipwreck coast." The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point tells the shipwreck story with drama. Lighthouses can be seen at AuSable Point in Pictured Rocks, at Crisp Point, and at Whitefish Point. Much of the Lake Superior shore is undeveloped public land. Between Munising and Grand Marais is Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, with waterfalls, beaches, dunes, and its namesake sandstone cliffs. East of Grand Marais is more beautiful shoreline with occasional agate beaches. And east of Deer Park is much more state land in the Two Hearted and Tahquamenon watersheds. The North Country Trail goes through the Lakeshore; see descriptions before and after Grand Marais.

Photography by James Marvin Phelps

Shipwreck debris can still be found along the Lake Superior shoreline around treacherous Whitefish Point.

The land south of the Lake Superior shore between Grand Marais, Deer Park, and Whitefish Point contains some of the most remote and inaccessible land to be found in the eastern United States. Because of this land's gentle topography, its old farms, and its closeness to the Mackinac Bridge (around two hours), many people don't grasp the wilderness character of much of this land—until they look at the DeLorme Gazetteer or any map that shows how extensive the wetlands are.

It's good habitat for moose, and in fact some of the moose brought to Marquette County from Canada on Operation Mooselift in the 1980s made their way here. They were tracked via their radio collars. Newberry has been officially designated Michigan's moose capital. But estimates are of perhaps 100 moose in the Eastern U.P. A few have come across the frozen St. Mary's River. (Studies show closer to 400 moose in western U.P.)

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The stunningly straight nine miles of shoreline leading to Au Sable Point, just west of Grand Marais. Photographer Jim Wark, who has taken thousands of aerial photos across the U.S., writes, "he length of the perfectly straight line of this shore is one of the most remarkable natural features I've encountered in all of North and Central America."

A good deal of the land between M-28 and Lake Superior is off the electrical grid. Its remoteness is a challenge to hikers on the North Country Trail and to hunters who, if lost, can't count on coming to a highway or bridge to find their way. The skeleton of a hunter wasn't found until two years after he was reported missing. Another missing person's remains was found after years south of M-28. A DNR field forester recalls the time it took his crew two hours to drive seven miles on a road to fight a forest fire along the Two Hearted River south of Pretty Lake. A trail map and compass are MENION SLEEPER LAKE important when hiking the North Country Trail, which goes through here from Pictured Rocks to PAGE#Tahquamenon Falls State Park#.

In general, this is one of the least productive U.P. agricultural areas, except for the dairying country north of Engadine and a few other pockets. Soil is often sandy or wet. Mixed forests with a lot of white pine covered much of the land up to the lumbering era.

Logging and the medium-security Newberry Correctional Facility are economic mainstays. So are tourism, second homes, and outdoor recreation, from fishing and hunting to snowmobiling in winter.

This area of the eastern Upper Peninsula is the biggest beneficiary of what was announced as "the largest conservation project in the state's history" in December, 2004—"the Big Deal." In 2002 a major landholder, the Kamehameha Trust, had put up for bid nearly 400,000 acres of Upper Peninsula land, mainly west of Newberry but as far west as Gogebic County. (The trust is one of the world's wealthiest charities, set up by the sole surviving member of the Hawaiian royal family for a private school to help students of Hawaiian ancestry achieve their highest potential.)

Compared with other Midwestern states, the Upper Peninsula's forest land is relatively unfragmented and undeveloped, with unpolluted streams. Land fragmentation would have had far-reaching implications—for habitat of fish and large mammals, for snowmobile trails and other recreational trails, for public hunting and fishing access, and for the timber products industry, the U.P.'s biggest employer.

The Nature Conservancy bid on the land but lost to the Forestland Group, a timberland investment management organization. Refusing to give up, the Nature Conservancy worked a deal with the state of Michigan to acquire a working forest easement on 248,000 of those acres. 23,338 acres, mostly in the Two Hearted River watershed, were purchased outright. Land purchases were linked with other state and national parks (Tahquamenon Falls, Pictured Rocks) and forests. Funds came from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund (money brought in by oil and gas leases on state land) together with grants from many of Michigan's largest private foundations.

The easements mean land stays under private ownership and on local tax rolls. Timber harvesting will continue under a "widely recognized sustainable forestry certification program." Only 40 private homes can be built. The easement protects public access for hunting and fishing, and for designated snowmobile trails. (Berry and mushroom pickers and birders, however, must obtain written permission from the landowner.) For more, Google "Northern Great Lakes Forestry Project," click on http//Xmichigan.gov or nature.org sites.

Return to Home/Guide to Upper Peninsula Regions

For everything from finding Tahquamenon & Seney, Grand Marais & Whitefish Point picnic spots & fishing guides to renting kayaks click here.

TAHQUAMENON & SENEY, GRAND MARAIS & WHITEFISH POINT: THE TOP ATTRACTIONS (to locate, see MAP)