Around
the Shores of Lake Superior
A Guide to Historic Sites
by Margaret Beattie Bogue
University of Wisconsin Press, 2007
History professor Margaret Beattie Bogue leads this tour,
circumnavigating Lake Superior clockwise through Minnesota,
Ontario, Michigan, and finally Wisconsin, Along the way, she
points out the cultural and natural history landmarks along or
near the shoreline.
Part travel guide and part history, the updated second edition of this
volume highlights hundreds of points of interest like Grand Portage,
the Agawa Canyon Pictographs, Isle Royale, and Apostle Islands National
Lakeshore with a brief history, directions, and contact
information. A foldout map is pocketed inside the back cover.
Bogue uses the opening chapters to descrive the natural and human
history of Lake Superior, from the Ojibwe tribes that preceded French
exploration and the fur trade to the development of mining and timber
industries, and finally, efforts to preserve and "save" the lake for
future generations.
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With his right hand Hiawatha
Smote amain the hollow oak-tree,
Rent it into shreds and splinters,
Left it lying there in fragments.
But in vain; for Pau-Puk-Keewis,
Once again in human figure,
Full in sight ran on before him,
Sped away in gust and whirlwind,
On the shores of Gitche Gumee,
Westward by the Big-Sea-Water,
Came unto the rocky headlands,
To the Pictured Rocks of sandstone,
Looking over lake and landscape.
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
Song of Hiawatha
(1855)
Created by an act of Congress in 1966 the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on the south shore of Lake Superior was designated America’s first National Lakeshore “...
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.”
The picturesque 42-mile-long coastline gets its name from sandstone
cliffs stained with copper, iron and manganese oxide mineral deposits.
The cliffs along the shelter the nests of peregrine falcons and,
further inland, bald eagles can be found nesting atop old
white-pine trees.
This was the setting for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem, Song of Hiawatha (1855).
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"Among
the many places of unusual natural beauty at Pictured Rocks National
Lakeshore, these are especially notable," notes Margaret Beattie Bogue
in Around
the Shores of Lake Superior.
"Sable Falls in the eastern end of the lakeshore is well worth the
ninety-four-step final descent. Nearby Grand Sable Lake with its deep
blue waters and beautiful dunes are easily accessible by car.
"From the Log Slide Overlook the magnificent expanse of the Grand Sable
Banks, a glacially formed perched dune, stretches 5 miles eastward
along the shore, forming a remarkably beautiful vista.
"Miners Falls and Munising Falls on the west, close to Munising, are
both exceptional.
"The Miners Castle Overlook is yet another outstanding place to enjoy
the natural beauty of
the Pictured Rocks colored sandstone formations.
"The Miners Castle Information Station on Miners Castle Road 6 miles
north of County Road H58 has relatively short trails from the parking
lot to overlooks of the shore below with its multicolored rock
formations. One overlook trail leads very close to Miners Castle, an
impressive and well-known formation. This is the only readily
accessbile place onshore to see the multicolored cliffs for which the
lakeshore is named.
"Many choose to view (the
multicolored cliffs for which the lakeshore is named) from the lake
using a cruise vessel out of Munising." |