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REGION
EIGHT
Manistique and the Garden Peninsula
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FOR NEARLY a century Manistique and surrounding areas on Lake Michigan's north shore have been among the Upper Peninsula's most accessible vacation spots. In 1887, Manistique was on the Soo Line when that major east-west route was completed between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Lake Michigan steamships brought passengers to Manistique docks. Big Bay de Noc, west of the Garden Peninsula, was a busy fishing center.
Manistique is just
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restaurants, lodgings, and area campgrounds
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89 miles west of the Mackinac Bridge on U.S. 2, is still on one of the two major east-west routes across the peninsula. All three of the area's best-known visitor destinations have an enjoyable low-key simplicity. on the Garden Peninsula just west of Manistique, is a picturesque and well-preserved ghost town. In the 1870s and 1880s it was the sooty company town of the Jackson Iron Company's charcoal smelting operation.
At unforgettable Kitch-iti-kipi (Big Spring) a mighty underground spring bubbles up into a deep clear pond, enchantingly green with moss. Seul Choix Point Lighthouse offers sweeping Lake Michigan views clear to the Beaver Islands. Its maritime museum interprets centuries of boating here.
Manistique's motel row enjoys a Lake Michigan view and access to a pleasant two-mile lakefront pathway into town. Before Europeans arrived, Native Americans camped all along this shoreline because it was milder and calmer than the Lake Superior shore.
Scores of fishing lakes are northwest of Manistique. The early magnet for small resorts was 8,659-acre Indian Lake. It's one of Michigan's largest inland lakes, fed by an enormous surrounding stretch of marshlands. Only five to ten feet deep in most places, it's home to lots of good-sized walleye, yellow perch, and smallmouth bass.
Beyond Indian Lake, a 25-mile stretch of Hiawatha National Forest land extends north nearly to Munising. Fifty-two lakes are in northwestern Schoolcraft County alone, and many more are in adjacent parts of Delta and Alger counties. See the Pictured Rocks region for information on this "Lake Country" area. More federal land not far north of Manistique is the Seney National Wildlife Refuge, a magnet for birders from near and far. Find it as a point of interest in our Grand Marais/Seney/Tahquamenon chapter.
North of Manistique, state forest land accounts for quite a bit of Schoolcraft County, too, as revealed by look at the big county map in Universal Map's Michigan County Atlas.
As in most of the Upper Peninsula, logging was a major part of the region's early development – an era vividly detailed in William S. Crowe's first-hand account, Lumberjack: Inside an Era in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, now reissued and illustrated with photographs and postcards of the logging era. Mills and ports were at Manistique, Nahma, and Thompson. The huge paper plant in Manistique is an important legacy of the area's forest products industry.
Manistique today offers more than meets the casual eye, thanks in large part to enterprising small businesspeople who have chosen to live and work in this relaxed little northwoods town. The Traders' Point commercial and condo development with bookstore and cafe is on the Manistique River site that used to be coal docks for the Ann Arbor Railroad carferry.
As the woods were logged off, the area reoriented itself to fishing-related tourism and to commercial fishing, too. Beginning in 1877 Manistique's harbor was used by steamships bringing vacationers to the area's hotels and cottages. They came from Green Bay and, later, from Chicago and Lower Michigan.
Commercial fishing still continues here at Garden and Fairport on the Garden Peninsula. At Fairport fishermen once caught and penned six-foot-long sturgeon. "At times," reports the 1941 Michigan Writers' Project Michigan: A Guide to the Wolverine State, "the sturgeon were frozen and piled on the shore like cordwood awaiting shipment."
Sand beaches alternate with rocky limestone points and shoals along the Lake Michigan shore here. The Garden Peninsula, a long limestone finger, extends 21 miles south into Lake Michigan, whose moderating waters give it a climate as mild as mid-Michigan. (For decades marijauna growers have loved its favorable climate and isolation.)
Extensive limestone deposits have played an important role in the local economy, beginning in the 1860s when limestone was used as a purifying flux in many small iron-making operations. Today the Port Inland quarry of Michigan Limestone Operations ships millions of tons of limestone from its port near Seul Choix Point east of Manistique to steelmaking centers on the lower Great Lakes.
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Home/Guide to Upper Peninsula Regions
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HELPFUL AREA INFORMATION
Call for stop by the Schoolcraft County Chamber of Commerce and tourist information center at 1000 W. Lakeshore/U.S. 2, just west of the harbor, next to Burger King. (906) 341-5010; www.onlynorth.com . . . . The Hiawatha National Forest office at 449 East Lakeshore/U.S. 2 just east of downtown gives handouts and advice for camping, canoeing, and other recreation on the area's extensive national forest land. It's open weekdays from 7:30 to 4 or so. (906) 341-5010.
EVENTS:
The second weekend in July Folkfest in downtown Manistique celebrates local ethnic heritage with live music and dancing, food booths, a 12k and 5k run, art show, and much more. Friday through Sunday. Call (906) 341-5010 or visit www.manistique.com for details. . . At Fayette Historic State Park (906-644-2603), Heritage Days on the 2nd Saturday of August relives the 1870s and 1880s with dramatic performances, costumed reenactments, and period children's games, plus food and pie.
HARBORS with transient dockage:
In Manistique (341-6841; off-season 341-2290; lat. 45° 56' 41", long. 86° 14' 54") with showers. Limited dockage at Fayette State Historic Park (lat. 45° 43' 18", long. 86° 40' 15")
PICNIC PROVISIONS & PLACES
• In a real hurry? Get sandwiches from Hardee's or Subway, both on U.S. 2 just east of the harbor, or Burger King just west of the harbor, and go to Lakeview Park on U.S. 2 about half a mile east of the harbor.
• Grill your own. Shop at a local supermarket. Ken's Fairway Foods is on M-94/Deer St. on the west side, Jack's Super-Valu is on Maple just east of Cedar, downtown's main street.
• Close-to-town picnic areas are at Roger's Beach on Lake Michigan and U.S. 2 about 3 miles west of the harbor, or at Lakeview Park (above).
• Picnic tables are around the beautiful Seul Choix Point lighthouse, 8 miles south of U. S. 2 from Gulliver.
• Picnic areas are at all the state parks (Indian Lake, Kitch-iti-kipi/Big Spring, Fayette.
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