6/15 Whitefish Point, MI, & Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum

Whitefish Point is a point of land that juts out into eastern Lake Superior.  Ships coming from Duluth must pass this point just before entering the St. Mary's River and the Soo Locks.  It is where the famous Edmund Fitzgerald and many other ships have sunk over the past couple of hundred years.

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum is located in the old U.S. Coast Guard facility that operated the lighthouse on the point.  There are quite a few buildings because originally this area was very isolated.

Here is the Edmund Fitzgerald bell. Not much has been removed from this ship so there are not very many artifacts. 

Lots of exhibits of the history of this area and other shipwrecks.  Native Americans would have passed this point of land as part of their fur trade route.

Very foggy and buggy on this day, which shows the need for a lighthouse here!  After a quick look at the beach and lake, I headed back to the RV, although my son took the kids for a short beach walk.  

6/14 Sault St. Marie, MI, Valley Camp Ship Museum

The Valley Camp is an old lake freighter that has been turned into a museum and is located very close to the Soo Locks. The holds of the ship have lots of things for kids and adults to look at. 

Besides the displays, you can go into the old engine room and crews quarters.

 

 

It was hard not to get distracted by ships going by.

The Captain had a little more luxury than the crew.

And here go some more ships past us.  The grey ship in the foreground is actually a barge with a tug at the rear.  I had no idea barges traveled the Great Lakes!

Notice how the tug is actually sticking into the rear of the ship, I assume for more stability.

 

 

6/13 Aune Osborn Campground & Soo Locks

There is a 20+ foot difference in height between Lake Superior and Lakes Huron and Michigan, which means that ships must use the Soo Locks to travel north or south with their cargo.  Currently, there are four locks on the St. Mary's River with two of those being planned to be closed and reconstructed in the next decade or so to hold bigger ships. 

It's a great place to bring kids because of the number of ships that go through each day.  There are also a couple of ways of finding out what ships are coming through and when: a phone hotline and an online program in the visitor center.   And here comes a ship now. 

In case of emergency, the crew was supposed to strap themselves into this lifeboat, which would then be launched via a ramp into the cold lakes!  Does not look like a good ride.

Notice that the ship is now much higher in the lock than it was when it started.

And out it goes, headed for Superior!

It was not easy to make reservations at this Sault St. Marie, MI, campground, but I managed to do it early enough to get us a campsite with a direct view of the St. Mary's River, which is where the ships enter or exit the locks.

It was a bit foggy the day I took these photos, but you can see how close you are to the river.

Luckily, on another day, I was able to get photos of some of the ships going by.

This one was HUGE!

6/12 Fort Mackinac, Mackinaw City, MI

Are you asking why "Mackinaw" is spelled two different ways?  The answer is that it depends who settled the location first and thus got to name it.  Mackinac Island and Fort Mackinac were French so they were spelled with the "ac" ending.  The city of Mackinaw was an English city, so it was spelled the English way.

Fort Mackinac is a reconstruction of the fort that was established here in 1780.  Previously, the area had been a fur trading post and Indian settlement known as Michilimackinac from 1671.  The original fort was built by the French in about 1715 but abandoned in 1761 when the English took over.

Anyway, it turned out to be a very pleasant sunny day, so we enjoyed our visit to the fort.  Here are a few photos.

Of course, I had to take my umpteenth photo of the Mackinac Bridge.

We just missed the musket shooting demonstration.

We did get to watch the cannon firing demonstration, except I jumped to much trying to take a photo that it did not turn out.  Here they are, anyway, getting ready to fire.  Next time I am going to stand back farther so it doesn't startled me so much.  

 

Had to add this last photo my son took.  My hands jumped a foot when the cannon went off, so I did not get a good photo of the actual "bang."