Winnebago Voyage: Shipwreck Museum and Tahquamenon River Falls

We dallied around some at the campground since we didn’t have far to travel to the next stop, and didn’t want to arrive at the campground before we could check in. We still got there an hour before check in time, but they let us have our site anyway. We ate a quick lunch and headed north to Whitefish Point to visit the Shipwreck Museum. It is run by a non-profit historical society and is well-done. The main museum building has displays describing some of the many shipwrecks on the great lakes. Quite a few of them were due to collisions, rather than storms. The straights at Sault St Marie are very narrow and can get congested. This museum has the bell that was the only artifact brought up from the Edmund Fitzgerald, which is the last shipwreck in 1975. Some of the victims’ families were present when the bell was brought up, and it was very emotional for them. That bell was replaced on the wreck with another bell, inscribed with the names of the victims. That wreck is the only one that divers are not allowed to visit, since it is considered a gravesite.

We paid a little extra to climb up into the lighthouse, and had a wonderful guide who told us lots more facts about the area. The steps are VERY steep, but the view is great from the top.

There are other buildings with displays about the lighthouse keeper’s role and that of the Lighthouse Service, a predecessor of the Coast Guard.

Our lighthouse guide was a nice woman who also told us a little about the area and suggested that we eat at a local restaurant in Paradise. They only cook what they caught that day. We each got three large chucks of whitefish, and it was really good!

We drove back toward our campground and made stops at both the upper falls and the lower falls of the Tahquamenon River. Each stop had a short hike to the viewing spots. There were some people in the water, but it was cold and swiftly moving, so sort of treacherous. It has a brown color from the high tannin concentration.