Graveyard of the Great Lakes

Sign, Graveyard of the Great Lakes, Whitefish Point
Sign, Graveyard of the Great Lakes, Whitefish Point.

The Graveyard of the Great Lakes comprises the southern shore of Lake Superior between Grand Marais, Michigan, and Whitefish Point, though Grand Island has been mentioned as a western terminus.[1] More ships have wrecked in this area than any other part of Lake Superior.[2][3][4]

Over 200 wrecks are in the area of Whitefish Point of the 550 wrecks in Lake Superior. For a distance west of Whitefish Bay, there are no natural harbors in which ships can "ride out" storms.[5] Also, as late as the 20th century, weather prediction was "a haphazard process, very imprecise and unreliable."[6] A ship might have no idea of the weather into which it was sailing, or the weather coming at it.

These shipwrecks are now protected by the Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve.

  1. ^ Andric, Marija (November 8, 2022). "These True Stories Behind the Shipwrecks on Lake Superior Will Give You Goosebumps". Reader's Digest. Archived from the original on May 20, 2023. Retrieved April 25, 2023.
  2. ^ Stonehouse, Frederick (1998) [1985]. Lake Superior's Shipwreck Coast. Gwinn, Michigan: Avery Color Studios. p. 267. ISBN 0-932212-43-3.
  3. ^ "Lake Superior's 'Shipwreck Coast' a watery graveyard". Twin Cities Pioneer Press. August 31, 2012.
  4. ^ "Near Paradise in Chippewa County, Michigan — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)".
  5. ^ "This is what the Graveyard of the Great Lakes look like". Earthly Mission. 23 April 2021.
  6. ^ Lynch, Peter (March 20, 2008). "The origins of computer weather prediction and climate modeling" (PDF). Journal of Computational Physics. 227 (7): 3431–3444. Bibcode:2008JCoPh.227.3431L. doi:10.1016/j.jcp.2007.02.034.