Region 13:
This area has Michigan's greatest concentration of islands, which have long been important to the area economy, starting with the Ojibwe maple sugar center on Sugar Island. Then came British forts on St. Joseph and Drummond Island, commercial fishing, ship-fueling stations, and logging. Today the islands here mainly serve as peaceful, scenic locations for mostly sizable second homes.
Most of the entire U.P. east from St. Ignace and Sault Ste. Marie has depended on boats for its livelihood. First there were the canoes used by Indians. From these efficient boats evolved a wider sailing version called "Mackinaw boats" used by fur-traders and then early commercial fishermen. Then the 19th-century lumber sailing vessels called "schooners" arrived to carry much heavier loads. Then came the Great Lakes passenger steamship. Today's recreational power boats, sailboats, and kayaks, and the self-unloading freighters.
Starting in the 1890s, some of the wealthiest Midwestern families, founders of corporations like Proctor & Gamble, Eli Lilly, and Armour meats, built large, comfortable, but unpretentious summer homes on many of the 36 ISLANDS of LES CHENEAUX. (Pronounced "LAY-shen-OH," it's French for "the channels," but most people call them "The Snows.")
The islands protect small craft from Lake Huron's waves and weather. The resorters' well-maintained wood Chris-Crafts provided everyday transportation and continue to be a hallmark of the region. Hessel's Antique Wooden Boat Show, the area's big event, is on the second Saturday in August.
The village of De TOUR is at the very easternmost part of the Upper Peninsula's mainland, across the DeTour Passage from Drummond Island. The "De Tour" name (locally pronounced "DEE-tour) goes back to the voyageurs. It means "turning point" and refers to the turn canoes made to enter the Straits of Mackinac.
DRUMMOND ISLAND is, next to Isle Royale, Michigan's largest island, 36 miles long. After the logging, commercial fishing, and farming eras, Drummond had become a fishing resort of modest summer cottages and tourist cabins. Things changed in the 1980s and 1990s. Today Drummond has some very impressive homes, but also plenty of wild state forest land to explore by food or ORVs. Its inlets and bays make for excellent boating, fishing, canoeing, and kayaking.
Off Drummond Island's northwest side, the NORTH CHANNEL is a premiere destination for recreational sailors and boaters. The North Channel extends for 120 miles between Lake Huron's Georgian Bay and St. Joseph's Island (on the Ontario side of the international boundary with Michigan).
In this part of the Eastern Upper Peninsula, the most striking scenery occurs where close-to-the-surface limestone bedrock meets the waters of northern Lake Huron in a vast variety of forms: islands and channels, rocky points, offshore rocks, and occasional bluffs, punctuated by occasional sandy coves. Much of the area's beauty is along the water, not just the Lake Huron shore but along the St. Mary's River, and on marshes by the water's edge and inland, too.
"Forests of white cedar, balsam fir, white birch, and quaking aspen dominate the shores," states the web site of the Les Cheneaux Chamber of Commerce, in a description that fits the entire area. "Hardwood forests of sugar maple and beech favor the deeper soils inland. Wetlands range from marshes along Lake Huron with their neighboring sedge meadows, to bogs with tamarack and black spruce and white cedar swamps. White and red pine tower above sand ridges and old beaches near the lakes." Several small businesses use cedar for shingles, posts, and furniture. Tassier's Sugar Bush in Cedarville makes maple syrup on a commercial scale.
Such diversity of habitat adds up to a wonderful environment for birds. Wetlands and many species of trees provide diverse kinds of cover. Ample food for birds comes in the form of insects and fish. The Lake Huron shore and St. Mary's River are parts of a major flyway for migrating birds from Canada to Central America. A major attraction for birders is the spring warbler migration, seen on the south shores of both Drummond Island and the mainland south of M-143.
St. Mary's River connects Lake Huron and Lake Superior The historic Great Lakes waterway from the Atlantic Ocean into the heart of the North American continent includes the St. Mary's River and the North Channel into Georgian Bay. That canoe route was used by native peoples and by the voyageurs, who brought the forest animals' furs, especially beaver, to Quebec, where they were shipped to European markets.
Today the St. Mary's River has become one of the world's great shipping routes for iron ore and grain from Lake Superior and the Great Plains to the lower Great Lakes and the Atlantic. The epic voyage from Duluth and today's Thunder Bay to the Atlantic was artfully depicted in the beautifully illustrated 1941 children's classic Paddle to the Sea.
For boat-watching, the St. Mary's River is one of the very best places anywhere on the Great Lakes, along with Detroit, Port Huron/Sarnia. Get close-up views of these huge vessels at
■ Cozy Corners bar and restaurant at the Neebish Island Ferry by Barbeau
■ parks in De Tour Village
■ the state forest cabins and campground on Lime Island
A huge ship can carry up to 60,000 tons of Lake Superior iron ore from the Marquette and Mesabi ranges. Other bulk carriers ship wheat all over the world—on the order of 10 to 14 million tons a year—from the ports of Duluth-Superior and Thunder Bay, Ontario. Get Know Your Ships to identify the big vessels by their markings. Then bring your binoculars to take in the details of the slow-moving giants.
Boaters find the St. Mary's and its islands complex and interesting. Recreational boaters can easily visit places like the remnants of FORT ST. JOSEPH on the Ontario side. The Treaty of Paris ending the Revolutionary War gave strategic Mackinac Island to the fledgling United States. As a result, the British fortified the southern tip of the large St. Joseph Island southeast of the Sault as a garrison and trading post with Native Americans. Intelligence gathered there led the British to launch their successful attack on the Americans at Fort Mackinac—the first engagement of the War of 1812. Today the remains of Fort St. Joseph are a National Historic Site administered by Parks Canada. A bridge connects the island, to the mainland and nearby Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.
During the last years of U.S. Prohibition, from 1927 to 1933, Prohibition in Canada was lifted and the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages became legal in the Canadian Sault. Illegal traffic in booze skyrocketed as a result. The St. Mary's at Sault Ste. Marie and downstream became known as Whiskey River, along with much busier crossings on the St. Clair and Detroit rivers from Port Huron to Detroit and beyond.
The St. Mary's has one scary disadvantage for small craft and for novice paddlers and boaters. The huge vessels are unable to turn to avoid whatever may be in their paths. Munuscong Bay (also called Munuscong Lake) between Pickford and St.Joseph's Island is one place on the river where birders, duck hunters, and paddlers can safely get out on the water and explore exceptionally rich habitats at their leisure safely is.
Fishing is the area's oldest touristic attraction. Noted outdoors writer Tom Huggler points out that the St. Mary's River is "one of the most diverse fisheries in North America." home to more than 80 species of fish plus migrants—everything from smelt to sturgeon—from lakes Superior and Huron. There's world-class Atlantic salmon, herring, whitefish, and many other gamefish.
Beautiful, little traveled M-134 goes from I-75 north of St. Ignace to De Tour. Otherwise the region's roads don't showcase most of the many low-key delights here—certainly not on Drummond Island or the St. Mary's River. There you have to refer to a map to reach water access points and see anything. The land inland is flat to rolling. A lot of it is farmland. Pickford is the area's agricultural center (dairy, hat) and the winter home of Mackinac Island's horses.
Much of M-134 wasn't paved until the 1960s. Especially between Cedarville and De Tour, it affords outstanding views of a series of rocky points and little bays, some with sandy beaches and low dunes, others with marshes full of wildlife. Viewed from water or land, the shoreline of Les Cheneaux makes for a tranquil landscape. White limestone boulders and mostly gravely beaches contrast with a blue summer sky, the bright greens of poplars and birches, and dark cedars and spruces. In late summer, splashes of goldenrod and purple asters create a simple beauty that's an ideal antidote to overstimulated lives. Fall colors, more yellow than red, stand out against the evergreen and water. If you can't use a boat to explore the area, take beautiful M-134 east to DeTour and stop frequently along the way.
A good deal of land just north of M-134 is state forest. M-134 itself seems part of a beautiful, magically under-used park. Frequent pulloffs make it easy to stop and watch birds, to swim, to beach-comb for the area's plentiful limestone fossils, or to walk into the low natural areas of birch, cedar, and hemlock. West from Cedarville to I-75, there are few water views from M-134. The road goes through a fair amount of marshland and forest that are part of the Hiawatha National Forest.
Descriptions of natural areas along and off of M-134 can be found under the Hessel, Cedarville, and De Tour sections of this book.
Here they are, listed in order from west (the Mackinac Bridge) east to DeTour:
■ Search Bay beach and St. Martin's Point hiking and ski trail (Hessel)
■ Birge Nature Preserve, Point Brulee (Hessel)
■ Mackinac Bay Scenic Overlook (Hessel)
■ Prentiss Bay Marsh (Cedarville)
■ Gerstacker Preserve (DeTour)
■ Bailey Roadside Park (DeTour)
■ De Tour State Forest Campground and St. Vital Point (DeTour)
Although there's no separate bicycle path, M-134 has extra-wide, two-foot paved shoulders that make for good bicycling. Summer residents are often seen walking along the shoulders enjoying the pristine scenery. Another plus for occasional bicyclists: M-134 is quite flat. Mountain bikes would permit additional adventures, taking the often rough, unimproved roads south off M-134 out to the points, or biking on Drummond Island. For a delightful, lazy day, wear your swimsuit or shorts and good wading shoes for taking a dip at Bailey Roadside park or DeTour State Forest. Bring binoculars for watching birds and boats.
Les Cheneaux Islands, Drummond Island & the St. Mary's River
THIS QUIET EASTERNMOST END of the Upper Peninsula has an aura all its own. It is close to the Lower Peninsula. The Mackinac Bridge is a little more than an hour from DeTour and the Drummond Island ferry. But the area is definitely off the beaten path even for U.P. residents. The local culture is a down-to-earth, pleasantly conservative mix of longtime summer people and local people largely descended from the area's farmers, sailors, and fishermen. Many have some French-Canadian and/or Native American heritage. One group of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians live just north of Hessel, where there's a small casino.
Most of the entire U.P. east from St. Ignace and Sault Ste. Marie has depended on boats for its livelihood. First there were the canoes used by Indians. From these efficient boats evolved a wider sailing version called "Mackinaw boats" used by fur-traders and then early commercial fishermen. Then the 19th-century lumber sailing vessels called "schooners" arrived to carry much heavier loads. Then came the Great Lakes passenger steamship. Today's recreational power boats, sailboats, and kayaks, and the self-unloading freighters.
Starting in the 1890s, some of the wealthiest Midwestern families, founders of corporations like Proctor & Gamble, Eli Lilly, and Armour meats, built large, comfortable, but unpretentious summer homes on many of the 36 ISLANDS of LES CHENEAUX. (Pronounced "LAY-shen-OH," it's French for "the channels," but most people call them "The Snows.")
The islands protect small craft from Lake Huron's waves and weather. The resorters' well-maintained wood Chris-Crafts provided everyday transportation and continue to be a hallmark of the region. Hessel's Antique Wooden Boat Show, the area's big event, is on the second Saturday in August.
The village of De TOUR is at the very easternmost part of the Upper Peninsula's mainland, across the DeTour Passage from Drummond Island. The "De Tour" name (locally pronounced "DEE-tour) goes back to the voyageurs. It means "turning point" and refers to the turn canoes made to enter the Straits of Mackinac.
DRUMMOND ISLAND is, next to Isle Royale, Michigan's largest island, 36 miles long. After the logging, commercial fishing, and farming eras, Drummond had become a fishing resort of modest summer cottages and tourist cabins. Things changed in the 1980s and 1990s. Today Drummond has some very impressive homes, but also plenty of wild state forest land to explore by food or ORVs. Its inlets and bays make for excellent boating, fishing, canoeing, and kayaking.
Off Drummond Island's northwest side, the NORTH CHANNEL is a premiere destination for recreational sailors and boaters. The North Channel extends for 120 miles between Lake Huron's Georgian Bay and St. Joseph's Island (on the Ontario side of the international boundary with Michigan).
In this part of the Eastern Upper Peninsula, the most striking scenery occurs where close-to-the-surface limestone bedrock meets the waters of northern Lake Huron in a vast variety of forms: islands and channels, rocky points, offshore rocks, and occasional bluffs, punctuated by occasional sandy coves. Much of the area's beauty is along the water, not just the Lake Huron shore but along the St. Mary's River, and on marshes by the water's edge and inland, too.
"Forests of white cedar, balsam fir, white birch, and quaking aspen dominate the shores," states the web site of the Les Cheneaux Chamber of Commerce, in a description that fits the entire area. "Hardwood forests of sugar maple and beech favor the deeper soils inland. Wetlands range from marshes along Lake Huron with their neighboring sedge meadows, to bogs with tamarack and black spruce and white cedar swamps. White and red pine tower above sand ridges and old beaches near the lakes." Several small businesses use cedar for shingles, posts, and furniture. Tassier's Sugar Bush in Cedarville makes maple syrup on a commercial scale.
Such diversity of habitat adds up to a wonderful environment for birds. Wetlands and many species of trees provide diverse kinds of cover. Ample food for birds comes in the form of insects and fish. The Lake Huron shore and St. Mary's River are parts of a major flyway for migrating birds from Canada to Central America. A major attraction for birders is the spring warbler migration, seen on the south shores of both Drummond Island and the mainland south of M-143.
St. Mary's River connects Lake Huron and Lake Superior The historic Great Lakes waterway from the Atlantic Ocean into the heart of the North American continent includes the St. Mary's River and the North Channel into Georgian Bay. That canoe route was used by native peoples and by the voyageurs, who brought the forest animals' furs, especially beaver, to Quebec, where they were shipped to European markets.
Today the St. Mary's River has become one of the world's great shipping routes for iron ore and grain from Lake Superior and the Great Plains to the lower Great Lakes and the Atlantic. The epic voyage from Duluth and today's Thunder Bay to the Atlantic was artfully depicted in the beautifully illustrated 1941 children's classic Paddle to the Sea.
For boat-watching, the St. Mary's River is one of the very best places anywhere on the Great Lakes, along with Detroit, Port Huron/Sarnia. Get close-up views of these huge vessels at
■ Cozy Corners bar and restaurant at the Neebish Island Ferry by Barbeau
■ parks in De Tour Village
■ the state forest cabins and campground on Lime Island
A huge ship can carry up to 60,000 tons of Lake Superior iron ore from the Marquette and Mesabi ranges. Other bulk carriers ship wheat all over the world—on the order of 10 to 14 million tons a year—from the ports of Duluth-Superior and Thunder Bay, Ontario. Get Know Your Ships to identify the big vessels by their markings. Then bring your binoculars to take in the details of the slow-moving giants.
Boaters find the St. Mary's and its islands complex and interesting. Recreational boaters can easily visit places like the remnants of FORT ST. JOSEPH on the Ontario side. The Treaty of Paris ending the Revolutionary War gave strategic Mackinac Island to the fledgling United States. As a result, the British fortified the southern tip of the large St. Joseph Island southeast of the Sault as a garrison and trading post with Native Americans. Intelligence gathered there led the British to launch their successful attack on the Americans at Fort Mackinac—the first engagement of the War of 1812. Today the remains of Fort St. Joseph are a National Historic Site administered by Parks Canada. A bridge connects the island, to the mainland and nearby Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.
During the last years of U.S. Prohibition, from 1927 to 1933, Prohibition in Canada was lifted and the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages became legal in the Canadian Sault. Illegal traffic in booze skyrocketed as a result. The St. Mary's at Sault Ste. Marie and downstream became known as Whiskey River, along with much busier crossings on the St. Clair and Detroit rivers from Port Huron to Detroit and beyond.
The St. Mary's has one scary disadvantage for small craft and for novice paddlers and boaters. The huge vessels are unable to turn to avoid whatever may be in their paths. Munuscong Bay (also called Munuscong Lake) between Pickford and St.Joseph's Island is one place on the river where birders, duck hunters, and paddlers can safely get out on the water and explore exceptionally rich habitats at their leisure safely is.
Fishing is the area's oldest touristic attraction. Noted outdoors writer Tom Huggler points out that the St. Mary's River is "one of the most diverse fisheries in North America." home to more than 80 species of fish plus migrants—everything from smelt to sturgeon—from lakes Superior and Huron. There's world-class Atlantic salmon, herring, whitefish, and many other gamefish.
Beautiful, little traveled M-134 goes from I-75 north of St. Ignace to De Tour. Otherwise the region's roads don't showcase most of the many low-key delights here—certainly not on Drummond Island or the St. Mary's River. There you have to refer to a map to reach water access points and see anything. The land inland is flat to rolling. A lot of it is farmland. Pickford is the area's agricultural center (dairy, hat) and the winter home of Mackinac Island's horses.
Much of M-134 wasn't paved until the 1960s. Especially between Cedarville and De Tour, it affords outstanding views of a series of rocky points and little bays, some with sandy beaches and low dunes, others with marshes full of wildlife. Viewed from water or land, the shoreline of Les Cheneaux makes for a tranquil landscape. White limestone boulders and mostly gravely beaches contrast with a blue summer sky, the bright greens of poplars and birches, and dark cedars and spruces. In late summer, splashes of goldenrod and purple asters create a simple beauty that's an ideal antidote to overstimulated lives. Fall colors, more yellow than red, stand out against the evergreen and water. If you can't use a boat to explore the area, take beautiful M-134 east to DeTour and stop frequently along the way.
A good deal of land just north of M-134 is state forest. M-134 itself seems part of a beautiful, magically under-used park. Frequent pulloffs make it easy to stop and watch birds, to swim, to beach-comb for the area's plentiful limestone fossils, or to walk into the low natural areas of birch, cedar, and hemlock. West from Cedarville to I-75, there are few water views from M-134. The road goes through a fair amount of marshland and forest that are part of the Hiawatha National Forest.
Descriptions of natural areas along and off of M-134 can be found under the Hessel, Cedarville, and De Tour sections of this book.
Here they are, listed in order from west (the Mackinac Bridge) east to DeTour:
■ Search Bay beach and St. Martin's Point hiking and ski trail (Hessel)
■ Birge Nature Preserve, Point Brulee (Hessel)
■ Mackinac Bay Scenic Overlook (Hessel)
■ Prentiss Bay Marsh (Cedarville)
■ Gerstacker Preserve (DeTour)
■ Bailey Roadside Park (DeTour)
■ De Tour State Forest Campground and St. Vital Point (DeTour)
Although there's no separate bicycle path, M-134 has extra-wide, two-foot paved shoulders that make for good bicycling. Summer residents are often seen walking along the shoulders enjoying the pristine scenery. Another plus for occasional bicyclists: M-134 is quite flat. Mountain bikes would permit additional adventures, taking the often rough, unimproved roads south off M-134 out to the points, or biking on Drummond Island. For a delightful, lazy day, wear your swimsuit or shorts and good wading shoes for taking a dip at Bailey Roadside park or DeTour State Forest. Bring binoculars for watching birds and boats.
Return to Home/Guide to Upper Peninsula Regions
For everything from finding Les Cheneaux Islands, Drummond Island & the St. Mary's River picnic spots & fishing guides to renting
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LES CHENEAUX ISLANDS, DRUMMOND ISLAND & THE ST. MARY'S RIVER: THE TOP ATTRACTIONS (to locate, see MAP)
See our U.P. interactive maps that locate the best experiences the U.P. has to offer—from camping & hiking to good eating & vistas!
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