The Shipwreck Coast Wayside

"The Shipwreck Coast" Wayside

Commercial shipping on the Great Lakes was booming in the late 1800s and early 1900s. 

Copper was being mined in the Keweenaw Peninsula and iron was being mined in the Marquette area. Logging was widespread across the Great Lakes region. All these industries created a lot of traffic on the water! Sailing on the Great Lakes, especially on Lake Superior, could be very dangerous. 

Sailing between Munising and Whitefish Point was particularly feared by mariners. There are over 200 shipwrecks in this area, earning it the name “the Shipwreck Coast”. 

Many factors combined to create the Shipwreck Coast. This was an era before modern navigational tools like GPS and sonar. Without these tools, underwater hazards could be missed. Dense fog and powerful storms in this area disoriented sailors and caused them to run aground. 

You can find the remains of three wrecks on the beach to the right as you walk towards the lighthouse. Lake Superior moves, buries, and exposes pieces of these wrecks along the shore. 

The U.S. Life Saving Service, later absorbed into the U.S. Coast Guard, had a Life Saving Station in Grand Marais. The surfmen from this station saved many sailors who wrecked near Au Sable and Grand Marais. The building pictured was used until 1939, when the current buildings were constructed. 

The bones of two similar wooden freighters are mingled near Au Sable Point. The 272-foot Sitka stranded in fog in 1904 and the 277-foot Gale Staples ran aground during a storm in 1918. The crews of both ships were saved. 

All shipwrecks and their pieces are protected by law and may not be disturbed or removed. Please leave wrecks where the lake has left them, ready to be discovered by the next visitor.