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Hunts' Guide to Michigan's UPPER PENINSULA

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MANISTIQUE
POINTS
OF INTEREST

Downtown Manistique. Downtown is friendly, functional, and architecturally quite simple, despite Manistique's lumber town heritage. There's a most unusual Latin American import shop, a used paperback bookstore, and a large antique shop with vintage clothing ... more

East Breakwater Light and Manistique Boardwalk. A scenic, hardened two-mile walkway with picnic areas goes along the Lake Michigan shore. The beach alternates between sandy and rocky, in places backed by birches and cedars ... more

Mackinaw Trail Tasting Room and Winery. Tasting room of an award-winning U.P. winery ... more

Water Tower and "Siphon Bridge". Manistique's 200-foot 1920s neoclassical brick water tower is the town's defining landmark. It's next to the river and what was the famous "siphon bridge," below water level. ... more

Imogen Herbert Historical Museum. Lots of curious stuff in this little museum — a quilt made of neckties, a lampshade — and good photos of the many facets of Chicago Lumber, the company that once owned much of the town. In back there's a cabin once part of an 1890s agricultural commune. ... more

Traders' Point. Two pleasant shops: a café/bookstore and antiques. The outdoor eating area looks across the Manistique River to the marina. ... more

Rogers Park. This is the best Lake Michigan beach in the area-pure sand, free of the limestone cobbles along much of the shoreline. Also a picnic area ... more

Kewadin Casino, Manistique. One of the smaller U.P. Indian-run casinos, the Kewadin here has 2 blackjack tables and one roulette table, a poker room, and 80 slots. Free drinks while gaming ... more

MANISTIQUE

Water Tower and "Siphon Bridge"

Manistique's most prominent landmark is the 200-foot-high neoclassical brick water tower, trimmed with terra cotta ornament. It's where M-94 crosses the Manistique River. It dates from 1921-22, when the municipal water system was installed. Apparently the presence of the new paper mill led the town to aspire to a kind of urban grandeur in the stylish design of this utilitarian structure. The interior space, now repaired, is used by the Manistique Historical Society to house its book and gift shop, plus displays about the town's business and civic history. (See separate points of interest.)

The so-called siphon bridge here was once featured in Ripley's "Believe It or Not" newspaper series. Here the highway was actually below the river level. Its water actually supported the bridge. (Highway reconstruction has now removed this novel feature.) The 1941 Michigan Guide, by the WPA WSriters' Project, explained the purpose of this unusual structure: "In 1916, when the Manistique Pulp and Paper Company was organized, engineers realized that a dam at the mouth of the river [that was] large enough to supply the needs of the mill would flood a large section of the city. If the shallow river banks were diked to hold the water, bridging the river would be expensive. The problem was solved by constructing a huge concrete tank lengthwise in the river bed; the sides of the tank provide artificial banks, higher than the natural ones. Concrete bulkheads, formed by the side spans of the bridge, allow the mill to maintain the water level several feet above the roadbed."

On M-94/River/Cedar at the north end of downtown.

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