Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
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| Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore | |
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| IUCN Category III (Natural Monument) | |
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| Location: | Upper Peninsula, Michigan, USA |
| Nearest city: | Munising, Michigan |
| Coordinates: | |
| Area: | 73,236 acres (296.38 km²) |
| Established: | October 15, 1966 |
| Visitation: | 476,888 (in 2005) |
| Governing body: | National Park Service |
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is a U.S. National Lakeshore on the shore of Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, United States. It extends for 42 miles (67 km) along the shore and covers 73,236 acres (318 km²). The park offers spectacular scenery of the hilly shoreline between Munising, Michigan and Grand Marais, Michigan, with natural archways, waterfalls, and sand dunes.
Pictured Rocks derives its name from the 15 miles (24 km) of colorful sandstone cliffs northeast of Munising. The cliffs are up to 200 feet (60 m) above lake level. They have been naturally sculptured into shallow caves, arches, formations that resemble castle turrets, and human profiles, among others. Near Munising visitors also can view Grand Island, most of which is included in the Grand Island National Recreation Area and is preserved separately.
The U.S. Congress made Pictured Rocks the first officially-designated National Lakeshore in the United States in 1966. It is governed by the National Park Service (NPS), had 22 year-round NPS employees as of May 2006, and received 476,888 visitors in 2005.
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[edit] Access
Munising, on the western end of the Lakeshore, is accessed by M-28 and M-94. Grand Marais, on the eastern end, is reached by M-77.
Paved highways penetrate part way into the Lakeshore from both ends. Travelers seeking to drive from one end of the Lakeshore to the other must use County Road H-58, which is partly unpaved. Roads only come close to the shoreline near Miners Castle, 12 Mile Beach, and the Grand Sable Dunes. The rest of the shoreline is only seen from land by hiking. A 42-mile (67-km) section of the North Country Trail spans the Lakeshore.
Pictured Rocks Cruises [1] offers a daily trip from Memorial Day weekend through October 10. Kayaking is a popular method of exploring the park.
Winter sports activities include cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, and ice fishing.
[edit] History
Although the Pictured Rocks lie adjacent to sections of Lake Superior that are rich in fish, the sandstone cliffs are dangerous to canoes and other open boats skirting the coastline. Pierre Esprit Radisson, the fur trader, made this risky passage in 1658 and noted that his Native American companions offered some tobacco to the local spirit of the cliffs.
During the Romantic Era of the 1800s, a series of American writers described their feelings upon sight of the Pictured Rocks. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft paid a tribute in 1820 to "some of the most sublime and commanding views in nature." As long ago as 1850 developers platted a tourist resort, Grand Island City, adjacent to the Pictured Rocks near the current site of Munising.
After the lumbering era ended around 1910, many of the parcels of land making up the current Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore reverted to the state of Michigan for unpaid property taxes. Eager for federal help and recognition, the state cooperated with the federal government in the region's redevelopment. Congress enacted a law in 1966 to elevate the shoreline between Munising and Grand Marais to the status of a National Lakeshore. [2].
In October 1966, Congress passed a bill authorizing the establishment of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, “... in order to preserve for the benefit, inspiration, education, recreational use, and enjoyment of the public, a significant portion of the diminishing shoreline of the United States and its related geographic and scientific features.” When President Lyndon Johnson signed the bill, Alger County became the home of America’s first National Lakeshore.
[edit] Points of interest
From west (Munising) to east (Grand Marais):
- Munising Falls and Interpretive Center
- Sand Point—National Lakeshore Headquarters
- Miners Castle—Rock formation, Miners Falls, paved road to overlook
- Miners Falls, interpretive trail
- Grand Portal Point—rock formations
- Chapel Falls and Mosquito Falls
- Twelvemile Beach
- White Birch Forest
- Au Sable Point—Au Sable Light Station (1874)
- Log Slide
- Grand Sable Dunes
- Sable Falls and Interpretive Center
[edit] Au Sable Light
The Au Sable Light tower and attached keepers' quarters were built in 1874. It is the heart of the current Au Sable Light complex. The tower was furnished with a Third Order Fresnel lens.
A wooden boathouse was added in 1875; the fog signal building was added in 1897; the keepers' quarters were converted to a duplex in 1909; and the oil house was raised in 1915.
The lighthouse complex was automated in 1958. The Fresnel lens, which required continuous maintenance, was retired and remains on site.
The lighthouse tower is open to the public in summer. The complex was maintained by the National Park Service, and the automated light continues to be operated by the U.S. Coast Guard. The National Park Service's stated goal is to continue to maintain the lighthouse complex to its 1909-10 appearance, during its first year of operation as a two-person station. [3].
[edit] Grand Sable Dunes
The Grand Sable Dunes, at the eastern end of the Lakeshore, are a perched dune formation. Sand washed ashore by wave action was then blown upslope by northerly prevailing winds until it came to rest atop a glacial moraine. The Grand Sable Dunes today form a sand slope that rises from Lake Superior at a 35° angle. The summits of the tallest dunes are as high as 275 feet (85 m) above lake level.
[edit] External links
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