Day: 49 continued
We left
Sault Ste. Marie and drove 1.5 hours to our next destination, Whitefish Point,
to see the Shipwreck Museum. The drive
felt longer as the scenery included only one evergreen tree after another on
rural roads. It seemed like every few
minutes Clark asked “are we there yet?” or its equivalent of “how much longer
do we need to go?” We were both shocked by the number of people and cars at the museum when we arrived as we had seen almost no cars on the road traveling to the site.
Touring the
shipwreck museum site has a very sobering effect on boaters such as
ourselves. Stories of lost vessels on
the Great Lakes filled the walls of the museum.
Whitefish Point is known as “The Graveyad of the Great Lakes” due to the
number of lost vessels at this most dangerous place on the Great Lakes. 550 wrecks surround the point including the Edmund Fitzgerald made famous by the
song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”
by Gordon Lightfoot. I knew the song
well but had no idea that the ship went down as recently as 1975. I say recent as that date is well within my
lifespan and a far cry from ships sunk in the late 1800s.
It would
seem from reading the memorial plaques provided for a sampling of the wrecks
that, besides being a narrow passageway with shoals along the side in
conjunction with regular occurrences of bad weather conditions at the point, a
lack of speed and due diligence regarding safety caused the majority of the
wrecks. “Time is money” as they say in
business, and it would appear that arriving fast held higher priority than
arriving at all. Several ships were sunk
after being rammed by one particular vessel who claimed “I carry her majesty’s
mail, and all vessels must give way to me!”
Her captain sank at least 4 vessels if I remember what I read correctly.
Besides
greed, stupidity also played into the equation a few times. As for example, two vessel captains working
for the same company spied each other on the waters and brought their vessels
near to each other to say hello and collided with each other. Clearly the mix of weather with the waters of
the Great Lakes are not to be taken lightly.
 |
Lighthouse on the Grounds of
The Shipwreck Museum |
 |
| Graveyard of the Great Lakes story |
 |
| Modern-day Freighter passing Whitefish Point |
In 1995 the ships's bell from the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was brought up from the deep and is on display in the museum. Family members of those lost attended the dedication and a film of the dedication is presented in the museum theater. The ship's bell was replaced on the submerged ship by a bell inscribed with the names of those lost when the vessel went down as a permanent, underwater memorial.
 |
| Dedication to the Edmund Fitzgerald lost in 1975 |
 |
| Ship's bell taken from the Edmund Fitzgerald |
Again, I found this whole exhibit very sobering indeed and a little too close to home as we plan our next chapter of our trip on the waters of Lake Michigan. We needed something a touch lighter after viewing this exhibit. We grabbed
two cookies from the museum gift shop, Oatmeal Raisin for Clark and Peanut
Butter for me, and headed out to Upper Tahquamenon (rhymes with Phenomenon)
Falls. These waterfalls are the second
largest falls east of the Mississippi River second only to Niagra Falls.
Fortunately the falls are relatively close to the Shipwreck Museum at only 30 minutes away, so we arrived at the falls shortly after 6:00. With a quick look at the trail map, Clark took off at a brisk pace with me making a valiant effort to keep pace with him. Multiple viewing spots are setup at the Upper Falls - some up high and some down low. Clark headed to the easier viewing site first with only 94 steps to the bottom of the gorge. Although we had not planned it on purpose, our timing for viewing the falls was absolutely perfect as the sun shown through the mist of the falls generating a beautiful, waving rainbow.
As I told
Clark, I have no problem with 94 steps going down. It’s the coming back up that I have trouble
with! We took some great photos of the
falls and rainbow and then headed to the next site where the sign claimed 105
steps to the bottom. Now this one was a
trick because 3/4 of the way down a platform was built going out sideways to
the viewing spot. The wooden platform had
steps going up and down multiple times.
Clark asked me if the steps going up counted as negative steps. No way could I tell if I covered 105 steps or
155 steps. No fair!
 |
| See the Rainbow! |
 |
| Upper Tahquamenon Falls |
 |
| Clark and Ev Selfie at the Falls |
 |
| 2 Crazy People Walking at the edge of the falls (not us) |
 |
| View from 2nd viewpoint |
After all of today's excursions and exhibits, we found ourselves hungry for a good meal. The pub at the Upper Tahquamenon Falls site had been recommended to us at the gift shop of the Shipwreck Museum, so we checked the menu and decided to eat right there at the state park. As I sat eating my meal and looking at the beer brewing equipment in front of me, I thought of how my son would love this place. I'm sure he would have tried all 3 of their home-brewed beers available at the time of our visit. Sadly I am allergic to beer so sampling was not an option for me.
We finally left the park and headed back towards St. Ignace around 9:00. Although it was still light out, the sun had started to set. As a perfect ending to an almost perfect day, we got a couple of great pictures of the sun setting over Lake Superior on our drive home.
 |
| Tahquamenon River |
 |
| Shores of Lake Superior |
No comments:
Post a Comment