WHITEFISH POINT

Region: Tahquamenon & Seney, Grand Marais & Whitefish Point

Whitefish Point forms the entrance to Lake Superior's Whitefish Bay. The bay's geography concentrates both ships and migrating birds at Whitefish Point. Birds flying along Lake Superior's shoreline come here to cross northeast from Whitefish Point into Canada.

Whitefish Bay is the funnel for ships entering and leaving Lake Superior via the St. Mary's River at Sault Ste. Marie. That busy river leads to Lake Huron and the lower lakes. Whitefish Bay is protected, but the open expanse of water to the north is called "the graveyard of the Great Lakes." It bears the full force of winds from the north and west. Many vessels have sunk there, making the area a magnet for divers. The most recent and dramatic wreck was the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975, but many more wrecks occurred in the late 19th century, when vessels on the lakes were smaller and far more numerous and navigational aids were more primitive.

Kathe Maskus

Whitefish Point used to have the feel of being somewhere back in time and beyond the hubbub of ordinary life, when the Coast Guard station sat abandoned. Now it's a busy place indeed in summer, as the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum grows and attracts more and more visitors with its energetic marketing. The Whitefish Point Bird Observatory is increasing its membership. Birders fill many motel rooms at migration time in April (a very difficult month in Upper Peninsula tourism) and again in September. Increased exposure has led the nearby Centennial Cranberry Farm to offer tours, which led to a gift shop, which led to creating its own cranberry product line - a nice development for people who like to give "made in Michigan" products. The bird observatory and shipwreck museum say they work well together for a quality visitor experience. Some people in Paradise resent the Shipwreck Museum, its growth, and the change it has brought. They have organized as the Whitefish Point Preservation Society, and they created quite a hubbub, picked up by news wires, when they accused the Shipwreck Museum of conducting an illegal dive - an accusation that has not been substantiated.

The town of Shelldrake stood at the mouth of the Shelldrake River three miles north of Paradise. As a sawmill town it had unusual amenities. It had a hospital, and homes for 1,000 - homes with plaster walls and bathrooms and hot water heated by the sawmill burner. Today it takes some looking to find any remaining trace of Shelldrake.

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