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Peninsula Point Lighthouse, picnic area, and trail
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The 19-mile drive out the Stonington Peninsula is almost an idyllic visit to America's rural past, before corporate farms took over. The park and picnic area at Peninsula Point has a special, subtle power: first, the drive in among the dark cedars; then the big limestone boulders arranged by the lawn's edge, a reminder of the area's underlying geology not visible to most people passing through. This is a place for taking your time.
The 40-foot light tower is all that remains of the cream brick Peninsula Point lighthouse, built in 1865 and often rebuilt after that. Visitors can climb its iron spiral stairway to the top deck and lantern, big enough so a sizable group can enjoy the grand views. (The keeper's dwelling burned in 1959. Policymakers at the Hiawatha National Forest, which already owned the lighthouse, decided to remove all glass and open it to the public.)
Interesting views are in many directions. To the east, across the Big Bay de Noc, can be seen the tip of the Garden Peninsula and the fishing village of Fairport. To the southeast, six miles offshore, the Minneapolis Shoal Light can be seen at dusk. It replaced the Peninsula Point light in 1936, because of shifting shoals and shipping lanes.
To the south, on a clear day, you can see the small islands extending to Washington Island off Wisconsin's Door Peninsula. Look west across the Little Bay de Noc to see Escanaba. Sunsets are spectacular.
During migration time, the Stonington Peninsula is one of those land funnels that directs birds, and monarch butterflies in August and September, to short cuts across water bodies. This is a good place to view the warbler migration in spring.
Great blue herons raise their young at a nearby rookery. It's an unusual number of those dramatic birds in one place. To feed their growing young, adults must keep active stalking fish in the shallow waters here.
Peninsula Point's grassy picnic grounds with rest rooms go back to a Civilian Conservation Corps project in 1937. The shore here is too rocky and shallow for swimming, but it's a fine place for wading and beachcombing. Limestone fossils can be found from 400 to 500 million years ago.
A one-mile trail (not wheelchair-accessible) extends south from the light tower near the shore and across a cedar swamp via a boardwalk to a parking area for RVs, a mile from the park.
Any vehicle over 16' long or 8' high is too big for the picturesque, narrow road that winds for a mile to the light. It goes through a grove of most interestingly twisted cedars.
The lighthouse here was erected in 1865, when Escanaba was starting out as a lake port. Busy shipping traffic demanded navigational aids to stay away from the shoaly point near the entrance to the Little Bay de Noc. "The Devil's Ten Acres," sailors called it, "a trap with teeth of rocks set in a series of treacherous shoals." For details and beautiful photos of Peninsula Point and other lighthouses of the western Great Lakes, visit "Seeing the Light" at wwww.terrypepper.com. Terry notes that "Point Peninsula" was the original name.
Monarch butterflies from the Upper Peninsula and Ontario stop at Peninsula Point in their spring and fall migrations to Mexico. The point reduces the distance they have to fly over water. Here the dense cedar trees protect resting butterflies from the wind. And milkweed patches in clearings offer places for females to lay their eggs. After hatching, larvae feed on milkweed.
Since 1993 butterfly research has been conducted here as part of nationwide research projects to determine to what extent monarchs are endangered. In August and September larvae on milkweed are counted, and adult monarchs are tagged. One butterfly tagged here was recovered in Mexico. The Forest Service is always looking for volunteers to help with this research. Call (906) 474-6442. Weed killers poison butterflies, and loss of wild habitat deprives them of food. Adult monarchs feed on wildflowers, and larvae feed on milkweed. Counts indicate whether populations are increasing or decreasing.
In order to observe migrating monarchs, conditions have to be right in August and September. Butterflies like to use northerly winds of cold fronts to speed their flight south. Bring your binoculars. Monarchs resemble dead leaves as they rest on trees. At the same times, migrating butterflies can also be seen in Wells State Park and other parks along M-35 between Escanaba and Green Bay. (See "Cedar River" and "The Green Bay Shore" place references.)
To find out more on monarchs, look up these web sites: www.monarchwatch.org (for links to many butterfly protection organizations, and for sources of butterfly nets) and www.monarchwatch.com. (Based in Lawrence, Kansas, Monarch Watch offers research and news updates plus school and garden projects on its web site.) Also, search for "Midwest Monarch Project" to find a variety of info on that organization, based in Rochester, Minnesota.
Take CR 513 to its end, 19 miles south of the junction with U.S. 2 east of Rapid River. (906) 474-6442. Wheelchair access: restrooms, picnic area.
Return to Stonington Peninsula
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