Rivermouth Picnic Area and Beach. The sandy beach and picnic area near the Tahquamenon's mouth on Whitefish Bay was once the site of a busy lumber port and sawmill town ...
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The sandy beach six miles south of Paradise slopes gently into the bay. Here (and in few other spots north of here) the bay is accessible to the general public. It's hard to imagine that this area was once occupied by the busy lumber port and sawmills of the ghost town of Emerson, and later by commercial fishermen whose nets and tugs added a picturesque note to the bay. In the 1930s a local landowner gave the state over 2,000 acres at the Tahquamenon mouth as part of the state park.
Eagles have built a large, messy nest in a big tree at the river's mouth – a challenge for birders to spot. In the Tahquamenon Falls State Park off M-123 just north of where the Tahquamenon River empties into Whitefish Bay. State park sticker required: $6/day for Michigan residents, $8 for others. Annual sticker: $24 and $29. Handicap accessible: no.
