Shelldrake, Michigan
Encyclopedia
Shelldrake is a ghost town
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
in Whitefish Township
Whitefish Township, Michigan
Whitefish Township is a civil township of Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 588 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...
, Chippewa County
Chippewa County, Michigan
-National protected areas:* Harbor Island National Wildlife Refuge* Hiawatha National Forest * Whitefish Point Unit of the Seney National Wildlife Refuge-Demographics:...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, about 8 miles (12.9 km) south of Whitefish Point, Michigan at the mouth of the Shelldrake River
Shelldrake River
The Shelldrake River is a river in Chippewa County. It flows through Tahquamenon Falls State Park and the Lake Superior State Forest into Lake Superior....
(also known as the Betsy River) on Whitefish Bay
Whitefish Bay
Whitefish Bay is a large bay on the eastern end of the southern shore of Lake Superior between Michigan and Ontario. It begins in the north and west at Whitefish Point in Michigan, about 10 miles north of Paradise, Michigan and ends at the St. Marys River at Sault Ste. Marie on the southeast...
. It is listed on the Michigan Historic Register. Prior to European settlement it supported a seasonal Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
fishing village. In the 1890s and early 1900s, it was a thriving sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
town during peak logging
Logging
Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks.In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard...
years on the Tahquamenon River
Tahquamenon River
The Tahquamenon River is a long blackwater river in the U.S. state of Michigan that flows in a generally eastward direction through the eastern end of the Upper Peninsula. It drains approximately of the Upper Peninsula, including large sections of Luce County and Chippewa County...
watershed. By the 1920s repeated fires and the decline of lumbering led to its demise. Today it is a privately owned ghost town with only a few weathered, original buildings.
Early days
According to Jesuit scholar Father Gagnieur, Shelldrake derived its name from the Ojibwa word Anzigo-ziibi. Though some cite Shelldrake to mean a species of duckDuck
Duck is the common name for a large number of species in the Anatidae family of birds, which also includes swans and geese. The ducks are divided among several subfamilies in the Anatidae family; they do not represent a monophyletic group but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered...
called the "cross-bill," the Ojibwa word anzig means either a sheldrake
Shelduck
The shelducks, genus Tadorna, are a group of large birds in the Tadorninae subfamily of the Anatidae, the biological family that includes the ducks and most duck-like waterfowl such as the geese and swans....
or a sawbill duck (also known as a merganser
Mergus
Mergus is the genus of the typical mergansers, fish-eating ducks in the seaduck subfamily . The Hooded Merganser, often termed Mergus cucullatus, is not of this genus but closely related...
). Shelldrake was first a Native American fishing village. Today a road closely follows the trail that ran from Shelldrake to Vermilion Point
Vermilion Point
Vermilion Point is a remote, undeveloped shore with a rich history lying west of Whitefish Point, Michigan, on a stretch of Lake Superior’s southeast coast known as the "Graveyard of the Great Lakes" or, in the title of a book by noted Great Lakes maritime historian , ""...
. Native Americans are believed to have used this trail to reach mines of red ochre (also known as vermilion), which they used for paint pigment.
Lumbering days
Cornelius ("Con") Culhane, who attained "Paul BunyanPaul Bunyan
Paul Bunyan is a lumberjack figure in North American folklore and tradition. One of the most famous and popular North American folklore heroes, he is usually described as a giant as well as a lumberjack of unusual skill, and is often accompanied in stories by his animal companion, Babe the Blue...
-like" status in local lumbering legend, contracted to haul timber by railroad from logging camps to Shelldrake throughout its sawmill years.
Rather than struggle through the swamps of the lowland between the Two Hearted
Two Hearted River
The Two Hearted River is a short river, approximately 25 mi long in northern Michigan in the United States. It drains a forested wilderness area of the eastern Upper Peninsula into Lake Superior. It rises in several short branches in northeastern Luce County approximately 15 mi southeast of Grand...
and the Tahquamenon rivers, he transported "his entire outfit by train, pulling the tracks up behind him, laying new rails in front."
A 1914 University of Michigan scientific expedition to the Whitefish Point peninsula traveled to Shelldrake by the lumbering company’s tug. Scientist W.S. McAlpine described Shelldrake as "... a typical small lumbering town, owned principally by the Shelldrake Lumber Company. A narrow gauge lumber railroad runs westerly from town for several miles."
The Penoyer brothers from Bay City, Michigan
Bay City, Michigan
Bay City is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan located near the base of the Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 34,932, and is the principal city of the Bay City Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Saginaw-Bay City-Saginaw Township North...
began the first lumbering operations on the mouth of the Shelldrake River in 1895 with the construction of a sawmill, long docks, and a tramway into Whitefish Bay for loading lumber onto ships. They owned a large block of pine lands in the Tahquamenon River watershed. The Calumet and Hecla copper mining
Copper mining in the United States
Copper mining in the United States has been a major industry since the rise of the northern Michigan copper district in the 1840s. In 2007 the United States produced 1.19 million metric tonnes of copper, worth $8.8 billion, making it the world's third largest copper producer, after Chile and Peru...
company bought the sawmill and uncut timber
Timber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...
in 1899 for their mines. Calumet and Hecla sold out to a Canadian firm, the Bartlett Brothers, in 1910. Lumber milling continued at Shelldrake until 1925 when a fire burned down the sawmill plant for the second time.
Settlement
By the late 1890s, Shelldrake had a sawmill, houses for workers that were equipped with bathrooms, a hospital, a school house, a post office, and an icehouse that could store enough meat to feed a population of 1,000 through the winter months. All of the buildings were plastered and had hot water piped from the sawdust burner. There was a stagecoachStagecoach
A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...
between Eckerman, Michigan and Shelldrake daily in the summer and three times a week during the winter. At one time there was also a passenger ship sailing between Shelldrake and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
Sault Ste. Marie is a city in and the county seat of Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is in the north-eastern end of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, on the Canadian border, separated from its twin city of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, by the St. Marys River...
.
Today
Shelldrake was listed on Michigan’s Historic Register in 1979 with the period of historical significance designated as 1600–1825. However, Shelldrake did not become settled as a lumber town until the late 1890s. The state marker text reads:- Shelldrake legend has it that Lewis CassLewis CassLewis Cass was an American military officer and politician. During his long political career, Cass served as a governor of the Michigan Territory, an American ambassador, a U.S. Senator representing Michigan, and co-founder as well as first Masonic Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Michigan...
, governor of the Territory of Michigan, and his party of nearly 100 camped here in their search for the source of the Mississippi RiverMississippi RiverThe Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
in 1820. This area, once a bustling lumbering community, was first settled in the mid-nineteenth century. Shelldrake is now a sleepy resort and hunting place. Few of the weatherbeaten buildings that once faced the long boardwalk remain. This settlement is a reminder of the area’s lumbering era.
Although Shelldrake was sold to private owners during the 1930s, it never developed into a resort or hunting place despite what is recorded on the Michigan historic marker. It is now a privately owned ghost town with only a few weathered, original buildings at the site.
Directions
Take M-123 to Paradise, MichiganParadise, Michigan
Paradise is an unincorporated community in Whitefish Township, Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan.Paradise is on the northeastern portion of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, on the western side of Whitefish Bay, Lake Superior, about by road from Sault Ste. Marie and about north of the...
to the intersection with Whitefish Point Road, continue straight on Whitefish Point Road for 3.7 miles (6 km), turn right on Superior Drive, travel 0.1 mile (0.160934 km) to first curve, park and walk right/south on the trail intersecting Superior Drive for approximately 300 feet (91.4 m). The historic buildings and state marker are on the right of the trail facing Whitefish Bay.