A Day at Whitefish Point

Day 24, August 23

We slept in this morning since we planned to stay put in Whitefish Harbor for the day.  Whitefish Point has a really nice ship wreck museum and lighthouse and if we were to take the time to visit these two facilities, we wouldn’t have time to make the 42 mile trip to the Sault. 

Light Keeper's Duplex and Light

We walked the mile trek to the museum area where we were amazed at this wonderful historic site.  They have spent a lot of time collecting ship wreck artifacts and have displayed them very nicely.  They also have a great display and presentation of the United States Life-Saving Service (later to become the US Coast Guard.) The light keeper’s cottage appears to be a new facility with oak woodwork that appears to be very modern.  That building is also filled with period antiques and displays depicting the lives of the keep and his family.  The light is reputed to be the longest continuously illuminating marker on Lake Superior.  We were impressed by the number of folks who were visiting this extremely remote site. 

Second Order Furnell Lens



Whitefish Point is historically a very dangerous place for the lake shipping industry.  There have been 500 or so ship wrecks in the vicinity, the most recent of which is the Edmund Fitzgerald.  As you would imagine, Gordon Lightfoot is a popular song writer in this park.  The point is where Lake Superior begins to narrow down for the entrance to Sault Ste Marie.  In the old days, there were many more ships plying these waters and the communication and safety equipment was either lacking or very weak at best.  Many of the early wrecks were caused by devastating collisions.  Add to that the fact that the prevailing fall and winter winds are from the northwest and there are absolutely no parts of call from Munising to the Sault, many of those ships would begin the passage only to be greeted by a violent storm that would drive their boats onto the lee shore.



Life-Saving Service Building

As the death toll climbed, the need for some sort of organized life saving service became evident.  Horace Greeley sailed in the area about the time of the shipping boom and realized the hazards involved and he applied his needle sharp pin to editorials that goaded the US Congress into setting up the service.   Working in the life saving service was as harsh if not more so than work in the shipping industry.  These guys were mandated to go out to a wreck but were not guaranteed that they would return.  The stations were located 10 miles apart down the coast and every night, at 5:00 a man started down the beach in each direction from each of the sites.  They walked until they met the man from the next station.  They exchanged tokens to prove that they had made the trip then walked the 5 miles back.  Many of those guys died of exposure and other misfortunes.  As you can imagine, the men on the rescue boats faced tremendous dangers as they put forth heroic efforts to save the lives of the wreck victims.

Mist Nets used to catch birds for banding (Rolled Up)

Also on the site has a Federal Bird Sanctuary nearby.  They offer daily programs, one of which that is playing this evening is the trapping and banding of owls.  I really  wanted to take part in that one, however, the reality of our situation is that we need to be at a car rental place in Sault Ste Marie by 4:30 tomorrow afternoon which means we need to be on the move by as close to 6:00 as possible.  The banding program begins at 9:30 and is a mile hike from here to where it starts.  Reality!  Janine and I followed one of the paths out behind the Sanctuary visitors center and it lead us to a number of net sites that they string up to capture their birds.  It was a really interesting walk and I hope to be able to participate in something like it in the future.

Back at the boat, we messed around talking to various people who came out onto the breakwater in front of our dock.  We contacted a car rental place to get a car reservation for tomorrow so that we could head for Houghton and our truck.  Our plan is to arise at 4:00 in the morning, leave for Sault Ste Marie at 5:00 and arrive sometime around noon.  We need to pass through the Sault lock, get to a marina, and then to the rental car by 4:30.  Depending on the speed of the boat, wind, and wave conditions, it could take us between 7 and 8 hours to make the 42 mile trip. 

David Boyd Research Vessel

Around 6:00 a 60 research vessel, the “David Boyd” pulled into the slip next to us.  It turns out that this is owned by the shipwreck museum and does research on ship wrecks.  It has sonar equipment on it and it carries an unmanned underwater exploration vessel used to explore the deeper wrecks.  It was used in developing the film dealing with the removal of the bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald which is in the museum as a memorial to the 29 crew members lost.  I spent some time talking to the crew, the head of which is also the head of the museum.  Another staff member is a young man who grew up in Bellefontaine Ohio and a grad of OSU. 

After dinner, we watched the video of the book “Freakonomics.”  We had both read the book but ran across this in the library and found it to be well done and an interesting recap of the book.  Bed came around 9:00.