Vermilion Point
Encyclopedia
Vermilion Point is a remote, undeveloped shore with a rich history lying 9.75 miles (15.7 km) 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 Frederick Stonehouse, "The Shipwreck Coast". The servicemen of Vermilion Lifesaving Station performed daring rescues of shipwrecks from 1877 until 1944 when it was closed after modern navigational technology made this service obsolete.
Vermilion Point was a popular stopover for Native Americans
, early travelers, and explorers. Early settler
s used its bog
s and marsh
es to grow cranberries
that were shipped to Chicago, Illinois and Duluth, Minnesota
. Today it is protected as a nature preserve for study of avian ecology and research of the Piping Plover
and beach plant community succession.
s that are churned ashore during storms. Pounding surf
and buffeting winds keep the low barrier dune
paralleling the beach sparsely vegetated. Water filled swale
s, bogs, and marshes occupy the land behind the barrier dune.
Vermilion Point no longer exists as a peninsula
. Sand Creek flowing out of the surrounding wetland
s into Lake Superior is the only remaining geographical landmark for Vermilion The original forest cover was lumbered off and is now replaced with typical northern hardwood
s and conifers.
deposits used by the Native Americans for paint. There is no evidence that Native Americans permanently settled at Vermilion but it was a popular stopover for Native Americans, Voyageurs
, Coureur des bois
, trappers, and anyone who traveled the south shore of Lake Superior. Jesuit missionaries were probably the first Europeans to stop at Vermilion in the 17th century. Territorial governor Lewis Cass
and geologist and Indian Agent
Henry Schoolcraft
passed through Vermilion Point with a party of 44 in 1820 on an official expedition along the south shore of Lake Superior. Henry Schoolcraft took overnight shelter from a storm at Vermilion in 1831 when leading a party to vaccinate Native Americans.
The Vermilion Lifesaving Station began operation in 1877 on the Lake Superior coast known as the “Graveyard of the Great Lakes”. Shipwrecks along this coast dramatically increased after the Soo Locks
opened this coastline to shipping in 1855. During this time, the United States Life-Saving Service
established three other sister life saving stations between Munising and Whitefish Point, Michigan at Crisp Point Light, Deer Park
, and Two Hearted River
. Vermilion is the only site of the four life saving stations that still has remaining historical structures.
Servicemen considered duty at the Vermilion Live Saving Station so hard and desolate that some called it the “Alcatraz” of the U.S. Life-Saving Service. Life for the men and their families was isolated and monotonous except during dangerous, dramatic rescue operations in boiling seas. For many years there were few roads and supplies were delivered by boat. During the snowbound winter months in the 1930s, they received their mail by dog sled
.
The Vermilion surfmen
’s rigorous training and drills with self bailing and self righting lifeboats
in rolling seas made them so skillful that the United States Life Saving Service chose them to demonstrate their life saving at the St. Louis World Fair
in 1904.
The United States Life-Saving Service was merged with U.S. Coast Guard in 1915. The advent of bigger and better diesel freighters
, better weather forecasting, and improved radio communication and navigational instruments such as radar
greatly increased the safety of sailing. Following World War II
, the Coast Guard found that the life saving stations were no longing serving a useful purpose. The Vermilion Life Saving Station was first merged with the Crisp Point Lifesaving Station as an unmanned sub-station in 1940, and then closed in 1944.
waiting offshore. The cranberries were shipped to Chicago, Duluth, and other places on the waterways.
The cranberry operation at Vermilion Point lasted from 1887 to 1932 with the greatest production years occurring between 1888 and 1910. Vermilion Point produced 1,600 bushels of cranberries in 1897. Today the earthen walls still exist but the marshes are flooded by beaver dams on the channels. Cranberries can still be found along the edges of the marshes and wet beach areas.
When the Coast Guard closed the station, local residents vandalized the original equipment that dated back to 1876 that the Coast Guard left behind. The station was sold to private owners in 1947 for the sum of $17,000. It was reported that motorcycle gangs frequented the station in the 1950s and “hippies” took up summer residence in the 1960s. Four-wheel drive vehicles and snowmobile
s destroyed much of the beach grass surrounding the old station in the 1970s.
, the Whitefish Point Bird Observatory
, and the Michigan Audubon Society for research of the federally endangered Piping Plover and beach plant community succession as well as student hands-on experience in avian ecology. The property is open to the public for quiet recreation – no motorized vehicle is allowed on the preserve and the areas around piping plover nests and bird-trapping nets are restricted.
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"....
, on a stretch of Lake Superior
Lake Superior
Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...
’s southeast coast known as the "Graveyard of the Great Lakes" or, in the title of a book by noted Great Lakes maritime historian Frederick Stonehouse, "The Shipwreck Coast". The servicemen of Vermilion Lifesaving Station performed daring rescues of shipwrecks from 1877 until 1944 when it was closed after modern navigational technology made this service obsolete.
Vermilion Point was a popular stopover for Native Americans
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...
, early travelers, and explorers. Early settler
Settler
A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally people who take up residence on land and cultivate it, as opposed to nomads...
s used its bog
Bog
A bog, quagmire or mire is a wetland that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses or, in Arctic climates, lichens....
s and marsh
Marsh
In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss....
es to grow cranberries
Cranberry
Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the subgenus Oxycoccus of the genus Vaccinium. In some methods of classification, Oxycoccus is regarded as a genus in its own right...
that were shipped to Chicago, Illinois and Duluth, Minnesota
Duluth, Minnesota
Duluth is a port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Saint Louis County. The fourth largest city in Minnesota, Duluth had a total population of 86,265 in the 2010 census. Duluth is also the second largest city that is located on Lake Superior after Thunder Bay, Ontario,...
. Today it is protected as a nature preserve for study of avian ecology and research of the Piping Plover
Piping Plover
The Piping Plover is a small sand-colored, sparrow-sized shorebird that nests and feeds along coastal sand and gravel beaches in North America. The adult has yellow-orange legs, a black band across the forehead from eye to eye, and a black ring around the neck...
and beach plant community succession.
Ecology
Its sand and pebble beach is intermingled with agateAgate
Agate is a microcrystalline variety of silica, chiefly chalcedony, characterised by its fineness of grain and brightness of color. Although agates may be found in various kinds of rock, they are classically associated with volcanic rocks and can be common in certain metamorphic rocks.-Etymology...
s that are churned ashore during storms. Pounding surf
Breaking wave
In fluid dynamics, a breaking wave is a wave whose amplitude reaches a critical level at which some process can suddenly start to occur that causes large amounts of wave energy to be transformed into turbulent kinetic energy...
and buffeting winds keep the low barrier dune
Dune
In physical geography, a dune is a hill of sand built by wind. Dunes occur in different forms and sizes, formed by interaction with the wind. Most kinds of dunes are longer on the windward side where the sand is pushed up the dune and have a shorter "slip face" in the lee of the wind...
paralleling the beach sparsely vegetated. Water filled swale
Swale
Swale is a local government district with borough status in Kent, England. Its council is based in Sittingbourne. The borough is named after the narrow channel called The Swale, a channel that separates the mainland of Kent from the Isle of Sheppey, and which occupies the central part of the...
s, bogs, and marshes occupy the land behind the barrier dune.
Vermilion Point no longer exists as a peninsula
Peninsula
A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....
. Sand Creek flowing out of the surrounding wetland
Wetland
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....
s into Lake Superior is the only remaining geographical landmark for Vermilion The original forest cover was lumbered off and is now replaced with typical northern hardwood
Hardwood
Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees . It may also be used for those trees themselves: these are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen.Hardwood contrasts with softwood...
s and conifers.
Shiras Expeditions
In the early 20th century the University of Michigan conducted, over several years, a comprehensive series of ecological investigations in the Whitefish Point-Vermillion region, supported by George Shiras. Subjects included botany; ichthyology; ornithology; herpetology; and others, and provide nearly 100 years later a valuable set of baseline data for conditions at the time. The report of the flora, for example, includes in addition to a list of plants found and their habitats and locations, many photographs of the area around the Vermillion Station and the nearby wetlands. Many of the results were published under the general title "Results of the Shiras Expeditions to the Whitefish Point Region, Michigan", most by the University of Michigan (Occasional Papers series of several of the museums), the Reports of the Michigan Academy of Science, or the Michigan Geological and Biological Survey.Early history
Vermilion was named for the nearby vermilionVermilion
Vermilion is an opaque orangish red pigment, similar to scarlet. As a naturally occurring mineral pigment, it is known as cinnabar, and was in use around the world before the Common Era began. Most naturally produced vermilion comes from cinnabar mined in China, and vermilion is nowadays commonly...
deposits used by the Native Americans for paint. There is no evidence that Native Americans permanently settled at Vermilion but it was a popular stopover for Native Americans, Voyageurs
Voyageurs
The Voyageurs were the persons who engaged in the transportation of furs by canoe during the fur trade era. Voyageur is a French word which literally translates to "traveler"...
, Coureur des bois
Coureur des bois
A coureur des bois or coureur de bois was an independent entrepreneurial French-Canadian woodsman who traveled in New France and the interior of North America. They travelled in the woods to trade various things for fur....
, trappers, and anyone who traveled the south shore of Lake Superior. Jesuit missionaries were probably the first Europeans to stop at Vermilion in the 17th century. Territorial governor Lewis Cass
Lewis Cass
Lewis 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...
and geologist and Indian Agent
Indian agent
In United States history, an Indian agent was an individual authorized to interact with Native American tribes on behalf of the U.S. government.-Indian agents:*Leander Clark was agent for the Sac and Fox in Iowa beginning in 1866....
Henry Schoolcraft
Henry Schoolcraft
Henry Rowe Schoolcraft was an American geographer, geologist, and ethnologist, noted for his early studies of Native American cultures, as well as for his 1832 discovery of the source of the Mississippi River. He married Jane Johnston, whose parents were Ojibwe and Scots-Irish...
passed through Vermilion Point with a party of 44 in 1820 on an official expedition along the south shore of Lake Superior. Henry Schoolcraft took overnight shelter from a storm at Vermilion in 1831 when leading a party to vaccinate Native Americans.
Life Saving Service
Soo Locks
The Soo Locks are a set of parallel locks which enable ships to travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes. They are located on the St. Marys River between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, between the Upper Peninsula of the US state of Michigan and the Canadian province of Ontario...
opened this coastline to shipping in 1855. During this time, the United States Life-Saving Service
United States Life-Saving Service
The United States Life-Saving Service was a United States government agency that grew out of private and local humanitarian efforts to save the lives of shipwrecked mariners and passengers...
established three other sister life saving stations between Munising and Whitefish Point, Michigan at Crisp Point Light, Deer Park
Muskallonge Lake State Park
Muskallonge Lake State Park is a state park in Michigan. It is located northwest of Newberry in Luce County. The park is situated between the shores of Lake Superior and Muskallonge Lake; the area is well known for its forests, lakes and streams....
, and Two Hearted River
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...
. Vermilion is the only site of the four life saving stations that still has remaining historical structures.
Servicemen considered duty at the Vermilion Live Saving Station so hard and desolate that some called it the “Alcatraz” of the U.S. Life-Saving Service. Life for the men and their families was isolated and monotonous except during dangerous, dramatic rescue operations in boiling seas. For many years there were few roads and supplies were delivered by boat. During the snowbound winter months in the 1930s, they received their mail by dog sled
Dog sled
A dog sled is a sled pulled by one or more sled dogs used to travel over ice and through snow. Numerous types of sleds are used, depending on their function. They can be used for dog sled racing.-History:...
.
The Vermilion surfmen
Surfmen
Surfmen was the terminology used to describe members of the United States Lifesaving Service. It is also currently the highest qualification in the United States Coast Guard for small boat operations.-External links:**...
’s rigorous training and drills with self bailing and self righting lifeboats
Lifeboat (shipboard)
A lifeboat is a small, rigid or inflatable watercraft carried for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard ship. In the military, a lifeboat may be referred to as a whaleboat, dinghy, or gig. The ship's tenders of cruise ships often double as lifeboats. Recreational sailors sometimes...
in rolling seas made them so skillful that the United States Life Saving Service chose them to demonstrate their life saving at the St. Louis World Fair
World fair
World Fair can refer to:* Expo , a large public exhibition* This World Fair, an American rock band...
in 1904.
The United States Life-Saving Service was merged with U.S. Coast Guard in 1915. The advent of bigger and better diesel freighters
Cargo ship
A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...
, better weather forecasting, and improved radio communication and navigational instruments such as radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
greatly increased the safety of sailing. Following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the Coast Guard found that the life saving stations were no longing serving a useful purpose. The Vermilion Life Saving Station was first merged with the Crisp Point Lifesaving Station as an unmanned sub-station in 1940, and then closed in 1944.
Cranberry operation
The low bog lands and surrounding wetlands, small lakes, ponds, and Sand Creek made Vermilion Point ideally suited for cranberry cultivation. By dividing the bogs with earthen walls and damming Sand Creek, workers harvested the cranberries by combing the vines with narrow-tined forks and floating the ripe, buoyant cranberries that were gathered with wide bottomed scoops. The cranberries were transported by flat bottomed boat to a large water wheel on Sand Creek that scooped up them up from a trough and dumped them on a conveyor belt to a mill. After the cranberries were sorted and crated for shipping or processed into cats-up or jelly, they were loaded onto small trolley cars, and hauled down a tramway to Lake Superior where they were loaded onto small boats and then transferred to a steamerSteamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
waiting offshore. The cranberries were shipped to Chicago, Duluth, and other places on the waterways.
The cranberry operation at Vermilion Point lasted from 1887 to 1932 with the greatest production years occurring between 1888 and 1910. Vermilion Point produced 1,600 bushels of cranberries in 1897. Today the earthen walls still exist but the marshes are flooded by beaver dams on the channels. Cranberries can still be found along the edges of the marshes and wet beach areas.
Hard times
Snowmobile
A snowmobile, also known in some places as a snowmachine, or sled,is a land vehicle for winter travel on snow. Designed to be operated on snow and ice, they require no road or trail. Design variations enable some machines to operate in deep snow or forests; most are used on open terrain, including...
s destroyed much of the beach grass surrounding the old station in the 1970s.
Vermilion today
In early 1970s the Vermilion Life Saving Station and the surrounding 1.5 miles (2.4 km) undeveloped shoreline was privately purchased for preservation and restoration. Vermilion Point is one of the few Great Lakes sites where the Piping Plover has successfully nested. By 2004 it was transferred to the Little Traverse Conservancy as the Vermilion Point Nature Preserve that is used by the Lake Superior State UniversityLake Superior State University
Lake Superior State University is a small public university in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. It is Michigan's smallest public university with an enrollment around 3,000 students. Due to its proximity to the border, notably the twin city of Sault Ste...
, the Whitefish Point Bird Observatory
Whitefish Point Bird Observatory
The Whitefish Point Bird Observatory is located in Chippewa County, Michigan, USA, adjacent to the Whitefish Point Unit of the Seney National Wildlife Refuge. It operates as a non-profit, affiliate education and research facility of the Michigan Audubon Society. The Society and the WPBO together...
, and the Michigan Audubon Society for research of the federally endangered Piping Plover and beach plant community succession as well as student hands-on experience in avian ecology. The property is open to the public for quiet recreation – no motorized vehicle is allowed on the preserve and the areas around piping plover nests and bird-trapping nets are restricted.