History, Light Station, and Shipwrecks of Whitefish Point Michigan

This summer my family and I vacationed in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. We visited the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society and the Museum complex at Whitefish Point. This museum is a treasure trove of history, tragedy, beauty, and stories of heroism.

Whitefish Point

Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum

Situated in Michigan’s beautiful Eastern Upper Peninsula, Whitefish Point is a gateway to Lake Superior. It is a dangerous point for shipping and marks the eastern end of an infamous 80-mile stretch of shoreline known as Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast. Of the 550 known major shipwrecks on Lake Superior, at least 200 of them are in the surrounding area of Whitefish Point. The primary causes of shipwreck here are stress from weather and collision. In November 1975 the loss of the steamer Edmund Fitzgerald and her entire crew of 29 is a worldwide legend. The wreck of the Fitzgerald lies just 15 miles northwest of Whitefish Point.

Lighthouse perspective

Congress established the Whitefish Point Light Station in 1849. Since then, its life-saving beacon has continuously illuminated these treacherous waters. In 1861, during Abraham Lincoln’s administration, the present light tower was built. Today, the Whitefish Point Light is the oldest operating lighthouse on Lake Superior. When visiting the museum, for a small fee, you can brave the narrow stairwell to the deck of the light. The view from the top is breathtaking.

My husband and I at the top
of the lighthouse

The Light Station was operated exclusively by the U.S. Lighthouse Service from 1849 until 1923. Then the U.S. Coast Guard established a Lifeboat Rescue Station at the point. In 1939, the Lighthouse Service and the Coast Guard merged. Lifeboat Station ceased operation in 1951, and in 1970 the Coast Guard removed all personnel from the site.

Even with the help of the light station and the Coast Guard

Inside and outside of a lifeboat 

Lifeboat Rescue Station the area is wrought with shipwrecks. What is it about a shipwreck that’s so fascinating to us? Perhaps because the ship is a testimony to the lives of those who perished, or because of the sheer terror the thought of a ship sinking in the middle of a vast body of water invokes in us. Whatever the reason, my deepest sympathies and reverence go out to those lost at sea. 

Due to Lake Superior’s extreme depths, most shipwreck sites remain undisturbed. Explorations leave wrecks and artifacts as they lay with only professional documentation of the site taking place.

There are over 6,000 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes with an estimated loss of 30,000 mariners’ lives. Most of the estimated 550 shipwrecks in Lake Superior go undiscovered. At least 200 of those wrecks are along Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast.

The SS Comet is one of the more fascinating shipwrecks in the area. She is

known as the only treasure ship of Lake Superior. Built in 1857 as a wooden-hulled steamship, propeller-driven cargo vessel, the Comet was soon adapted to carry passengers. In 1875 she went down with a crew of ten. She carried 70 tons of Montana silver ore when she sank. The first attempts to salvage her cargo came in 1876. Then again in 1938 both attempts were unsuccessful. In the 1980’s the Comet was finally salvaged. Though apparently the salvagers illegally removed the ships artifacts, they now belong to the State of Michigan and are on loan to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. The fate of The Comet’s silver ore cargo is still unknown. Her resting place at the bottom of the lake is protected by the Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve as part of an underwater museum which is frequented by deep-water divers.

The most famous of all Great Lakes shipwrecks has to be the November 10th, 1975 sinking of The Edmund Fitzgerald. The ship was 729 feet long, 39 feet high, and had a breadth of 75 feet. Empty, the vessel weighed 13,632 tons. The Edmund Fitzgerald broke records for the amount of cargo it could haul, and while many factors played into the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Some of the theories include the ship’s size and weight in addition to the fierce November storm on that fateful night. Winds were clocked at 45 knots and waves as high as 30 feet were undoubtedly a significant aspect in the ultimate demise of the Edmund Fitzgerald. There has even been speculation that a rough wave pulled the ship under water. Though the actual cause may never be known the tragedy of the death of The Edmund Fitzgerald’s crew of 29 will forever be immortalized in the Gordon Lightfoot song, The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald.

The day we visited Whitefish Point the skies were clear and blue. The water calm and cold, and the wind warm and light. The area is saturated with a long history, rich with the heroics of the Coast Guard’s Lifesaving Station, the hope of the beacon of light shining from the Light House Station that still burns brightly today, and the horrifying heartbreak of many shipwrecks along its coast. If you ever have the chance to venture to Whitefish Point, be sure to stop by The Shipwreck Museum and take a moment to remember those who will never leave. 

                      All photos are copyright by Michele K. Morris and may not be used with permission of the author.

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Award winning author, Michele K. Morris’s love for historical fiction began when she first read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House book series. She grew up riding horses and spending her free time in the woods of mid-Michigan dreaming of days-gone-by and knights-in-shining-armor. Therefore, it only makes sense that she now writes historical romance with a touch of suspense. Married to her high school sweetheart, they are living happily-ever-after with their children, in-loves, and grandchildren in Florida, the sunshine state. When not spending time with her large brood or writing, Michele enjoys photography, genealogy, and cooking.

Travel and shipping on the Great Lakes

For longer than people have been recording Great Lakes history, men, women and children have paddled, sailed, steamed, and motored over Lake Erie, Lake

Great Lakes Art

Ontario, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, and Lake Superior.

Chippewa, Cree, Mesquakie/Fox, Huron, Iroquois, Menominee, Ottawa, Potawatomi and Dakota/Sioux were some of the Native American Indians who lived in the Great Lakes regions. These Indian nations used canoes to fish, travel and migrate from one area to another. The Lakes were a source of livelihood to ancient indigenous tribes.

Though highly disputed, evidence that Norsemen longboats traveled and possibly camped along the shores of the Great Lakes was “discovered” in the 1930’s. The Beardmore Relics are Viking Age artifacts, supposedly found near Beardmore, Ontario, Canada. 

The Beardmore Relics

The objects consist of an ax head, a Viking Age sword, and a bar that could have been part of a Viking shield. While the legitimacy of the fragments is not usually argued, the "discovery" is commonly considered to be a hoax. Did Viking longboats travel around the Great Lakes? That’s yet to be proven, but hey, Vikings were explorers and conquerors, so why wouldn’t they?

By the early Seventeenth Century, European explorers were traveling on Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, and Lake Superior in canoes and boats powered by sails

Lake Huron

or paddles. We know French explorers were more aggressive in their pursuit to map and explore the shoreline due in part to cartography. A British map published in 1626 showed no sign of the Great Lakes existence, and though more accurate maps were available in 1701, at least one British map issued was drawn showing with a single large lake at the end of the St. Lawrence River. In comparison, as early as 1650, the Frenchman Nicolas Sanson d'Abbeville had documented all five Great Lakes. Though not accurate, especially Lakes Erie, Ontario, and Superior, all of the Great Lakes were accounted for.

During the late 1700’s and all through the 1800’s, as more Americans moved west, shipping on the Great Lakes became increasingly important to the growth of our new nation’s economy. During this time barges, sloops, brigantines, schooners, and clippers traversed the freshwater of the Great Lakes. After the War of 1812, schooners were the chief vessels on the Lakes. Most of the merchant ships between 1800 and 1830 were 100 tons register, approximately 70 foot long, two-masted schooners. These ships could carry about 150 tons or 1,500 barrels of cargo. A crew of three or four men could run the schooner. Brigantines became popular in the 1830's and 1840's. Crews of eight to ten

Schooner

people were required, and the ships were not as maneuverable as schooners. After 1850 few brigs or brigantines were built mostly because they were too expensive. The most useful and lucrative rig was the topsail schooner, intended for quick trips with heavy cargo the ship had excellent maneuverability and required a limited crew.

Today, shipping on the Great Lakes is still going strong. We visited Whitefish Point in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan this summer and saw two massive freighters in the few hours we were there. Alpena, Michigan has recently expanded a cruise ship line that travels the Great Lakes. Everyday, pleasure boats and fishing vessels travel the lake shores and beyond.

The Great Lakes’ long history of shipping doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon.

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Award winning author, Michele Morris’s love for historical fiction began when she first read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House book series. She grew up riding horses and spending her free time in the woods of mid-Michigan dreaming of days-gone-by and knights-in-shining-armor. Therefore, it only makes sense that she now writes historical romance with a touch of suspense. Married to her high school sweetheart, they are living happily-ever-after with their six children, three in-loves, and six grandchildren in Florida, the sunshine state. When not spending time with her large brood or writing, Michele enjoys photography, genealogy, and cooking. 

Christmas Tree Ships

 

A few years ago I wrote a short story called The Christmas Tree Schooner for Guidepost Book's A Cup of Christmas Cheer and enjoyed learning all about Christmas tree ships on the Great Lakes. The great age of sail occurred on the Great Lakes following the Civil War with an unprecedented amount of schooners as its main type of vessel. Over 12,000 sailors worked aboard about 1,800 ships, mostly male, carrying up to 300,000 tons annually. Often their masters would have full or part ownership of the vessel and steam power eventually took over the seas, able to haul about a million tons using less vessels. Schooners that continued into the early 20th century, hauled grain, fish, lumber, and Christmas Trees.

Christmas Tree Schooner by Charles Vickery

By the mid 19th century, decorating Christmas trees at Christmas time was a well established tradition brought to America by German immigrants. Many Germans settled around the Great Lakes, in cities like Chicago, and looked forward to the balsams and firs that would be brought to the cities from Michigan's Upper Peninsular. Fisherman and short-haul sailors would risk venturing across the choppy, ice-laden waters to the lumber camps and load up their schooners full of trees, purchased for a few cents each. They would dock their ships along the Chicago River and other ports, setting up make-shift shops. Eager citizens purchased the Christmas trees at seventy-fives cents a piece, garnering a tidy profit from one of the last hauls of the season.

Hauling Christmas trees in late Novemeber and early December on the Great Lakes was risky business. Schooners such as Arendal, Actor, Experiment, Ida, and George L. Wrenn engaged in the hazardous Christmas tree trade during the period of 1876-1920. The schooners F. H. Williams and Coaster are among many who had to be towed into port looking like floating ice bergs, the captain of the F. H. Williams face frostbitten. On the Lady Ellen's first haul her master could not sell her cargo to the Chicago market already laden with Christmas trees. The Caledonia and S. Thal are among those which sank. 

Capt. Scheunemann

The Rouse Simmons is perhaps the most famous of the Christmas tree ships. It was one of the first Christmas ships, and one of the last. Christened in 1868, the schooner spent most of its life hauling lumber. But on November 23, 1912 while transporting its Yuletide cargo of evergreens it was caught in a ferocious storm on the Wisconsin shore. It, too, sank. Captain Herman Scheunemann perished with all of his crew, the same fate of his brother, captain of the S. Thal, several years earlier. The community was saddened by the loss of Capt. Scheunemann, who sold his Christmas trees from the deck of his schooner, tied to Chicago's Rush street bridge, for thirty years. They had Affectionately called "Christmas tree Scheunemann" he was admired for delivering good cheer to his neighbors. Some called him "Santa," as he was said to give some of his trees to the poor. His wife, and three daughters continued to sell trees and wreaths into the 1930's. In 1971, the sunken Rouse Simmons was discovered in Lake Michigan, its hull still filled with Christmas trees.

Today, the tradition is continued by Makinaw, a Coast Guard Cutter. Volunteers unload its cargo of Christmas trees and deliver them to deserving families throughout the Chicago area. After all, what's Christmas without a Christmas tree?

CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY OF VOLUME 3 of A CUP OF CHRISTMAS CHEER, featuring my story "The Memory Shop." (Sorry, I'm all out of volume 2 with The Christmas Tree Schooner. Both complete sets can be ordered at Guideposts: see link below.) Please leave your email addy in a comment to be eligible.

Carla Olson Gade's "Upon a Christmas Tree Schooner" is included in Vol. 1 & 2 of A Cup of Christmas Cheer from Guideposts Books and "The Memory Shop" is featured in Vol. 3 & 4. Her novella, "'Tis the Season," is from bestselling Mistletoe Memories. From Carla's heart to yours, Merry Christmas!

Shipping or Rail: How Small Towns Got Their Goods

Shipping has been one of the most important means of transportation throughout history. Even as far back as ancient times, shipping was used to transport both goods and people, and entire cities developed because of natural harbors and trade routes. Things were much the same when Europeans first settled the United States. Boston and New York both became great cities because they had natural harbors where ships could dock and shelter.

While this might not surprise you about big cities, did you know the same is true of small towns? Whether located on rivers or natural harbors, many towns in the United States and across the globe came into existence do to geography.

This is particularly true of towns along the Great Lakes. A lot of effort and attention was put into laying a railroad that would span from the East Coast to the West Coast after the Civil War. But no such effort was put into connecting the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border. 

Eagle Harbor, Michigan, the town I'm featuring in my new Eagle Harbor Series, was accessible mainly by water. It had a pier where large ships could dock and received all of its imports and exports exclusively through shipping. The railroad didn't come to Eagle Harbor until 1907, and numerous towns similar to Eagle Harbor exist in other places along the Great Lakes. 

Rail was essential for towns that weren't on a river, Great Lake, or ocean. If a town didn't have a port and didn't have a train depot, then sending and receiving goods could be done only through horses and wagons, which severely limited the amount of imports and exports from an area.

Oftentimes short, local railroad lines were laid from coastal towns to villages farther inland. In that respect, many towns relied on a combination of both shipping and rail to get their supplies. Such is true of the old Delaware Mine and Central Mine in Michigan's Copper Country. A local train track ran the five miles from Eagle Harbor's port to the crowded mining town of Central, where over 1,000 people depended on the supplies being shipped to them.

In my newest Eagle Harbor novel, Love's Sure Dawn, I deal with the important role shipping played for towns that would otherwise be completely isolated. My hero is the son of a shipping company owner, and my heroine spends time working as a cook on one of the ships that runs from Eagle Harbor to Chicago. Oftentimes in novels, characters walk into a general store and find fabric, boots, saddles, and the like. It was fun to include a little bit about how all those boots and bolts of fabric got to be in the general store in the first place.

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No matter how hard she tries to help, Rebekah Cummings always ends up causing more problems than she solves. This time, though, things will be different. She'll find a way to pay her family's debts, even if doing so requires leaving Eagle Harbor. Maybe then they'll start treating her as a capable woman who makes her own choices.

Gilbert Sinclair is going to marry an heiress. With his latest business venture sunk at the bottom of Lake Superior, he needs money to replace the steamship he lost, so he heads to Chicago where his father's business connections should land him a suitable wife. Like most things in his meticulously planned life, everything goes as expected—until he discovers Rebekah Cummings working as the new cook on his ship.

Rebekah well remembers the pain she endured the last time she tried trusting Gilbert, and Gilbert can't afford to pursue the love of a working class woman. But they can't stop the forgotten feelings swirling between them--or ignore the sacrifices they'd both have to make for a future together.

Learn more about Naomi and her books at www.naomirawlings.com.

An Old-Time Hero: Joshua James

by Naomi Rawlings

"You have to go out. You don’t have to come back."

Two years ago I did a series of posts about the Unite States Life-Saving Service. (If you want to brush up on what exactly the Life-Saving Service was and how they went about rescuing people from wrecked ships, here's a link to some of my old posts). 

"You have to go out. You don’t have to come back." This was the unofficial motto of the U.S Life-Saving Service, a precursor to the United States Coast Guard. Back before helicopters and radar and power boats, life-saving teams braved stormy waters with little more than rowboats, storm suits, and life rings.

Out of the hundreds of men that risked their lives for the life-saving service, one man stands out as

the most decorated and most well known. His name is Joshua James, and he lived in Massachusetts. At the age of ten, James watched his mother and baby sister die when the ship they were sailing on got caught in a storm and wrecked a half mile from the harbor.

When he was fifteen, James joined a group of volunteers from the local humane society was the launched a surfboat to go rescue passengers from a floundering ship named Mohawk. That was Jame's first life-saving rescue, but he went on to spend the next sixty years of his life rescuing sailors. First, he worked as a volunteer life-saver for the Massachusetts Humane Society, and then he worked as a station keeper for the U.S. Life-Saving Service. He's credited with saving over 200 lives, and was awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal from the life-saving service as well as several other medals from the Massachusetts Humane Society. 

James died at the age of 75, after returning from running a life-saving drill in stormy weather. He apparently paddled for over an hour with the other men of his crew while they tested a new surfboat. Upon returning to the beach, he died of a heart attack.

I modeled the hero in my newest Eagle Harbor novel after Joshua James. My fictional Elijah Cummings grew up in Eagle Harbor, Michigan, on the shores of Lake Superior. He spent two years sailing the Atlantic Ocean and saw life-saving teams in action. After his father drowns in a storm, Elijah returns to Eagle Harbor. Unable to sit by and watch when ships flounder coming into port, he starts a volunteer life-saving team. But the icy conditions and strong storms prove difficult for his volunteers and secondhand equipment. He soon finds himself fighting for the U.S. Life-Saving Service to establish a legitimate station—as well as fighting for the woman he’s loved for fifteen years.

Giveaway: Answer one of the questions below to be eligible for a paperback copy of either Love's Unfading Light or Love's Every Whisper. Winner's choice.

Question: Do you enjoy novels where the characters have unusual jobs and hobbies? Do you personally know anyone with a dangerous job that puts their life at risk? How do family members respond when a person they love has a risky job?

*****

Love's Every Whisper

Victoria Donnelly simply wants to do something right, at least once in her lifetime. With five years of failed courtships behind her and the calendar inching closer to another birthday, she's determined to redeem herself and snag a proposal from a wealthy childhood acquaintance, Gilbert Sinclair. But returning to Eagle Harbor stirs up long forgotten memories. And worse, old affection for her betrothed's enemy. 

Elijah Cummings has loved Victoria for fifteen years. But fishermen's sons don't marry shipping barons' daughters. He knows it. She knows it. The entire town knows it. Resolved to keep his distance from Victoria, Elijah focuses on establishing a much needed life-saving station, risking his own life by rescuing sailors stuck aboard shipwrecks. 

He knows how to save drowning sailors, but how is he to save a woman from the biggest mistake of her life—without destroying both their hearts in the process? 

Purchase Love's Every Whisper for $3.99

Purchase Love's Unfading Light (Eagle Harbor Book 1) on sale for $0.99 through 10/2

Mackinac Island~from Military Stronghold to Tourist Attraction

Welcome to Heroes, Heroines, and History! 

Michele Morris here and I’d like to invite you to come along with me on a tour through time and visit historic Mackinac Island, Michigan.

Approaching Mackinac Island

Located between Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas, Mackinac Island has been a summer destination for hundreds of years. The natives called the island, Michilimackinac, meaning “place of the great turtle”. Most likely due to the island’s humped shape and resemblance to a turtle shell.    

In fact, Native American artifacts carbon dated at over seven hundred years ago old have been uncovered on the island. Fishhook, stone spearheads, and clay pottery shreds tell us a story of Indian tribes paddling to the island and fishing for pike, sturgeon, herring, and whitefish. The fish were so plentiful on Mackinac that the native peoples call the area “home of the fish.”

Forest on Mackinac

Throughout the mid-seventeenth century, French explorers and missionaries began to settle the area around the Great Lakes. Especially after 1670 when Father Claude Dablon established a Christian mission on Mackinac Island. A year later, Father Jacques Marquette moved the mission to the northern side of the Straights of Mackinac to the present day city of St. Ignace. Years later, the mission moved again. This time, it was relocated to the opposite side of the Straights of Mackinac where French soldiers would build Fort Michilimackinac, thus establishing a strong foothold in the Great Lakes fur trade industry and a military center. In 1761, the British took control of the fort from the French after their win in the Seven Years War.

From 1779-1781, during the Revolutionary War, the British feared an American attack, so they dismantled Fort Michilimackinac. The soldiers moved the garrison high onto the bluff of Mackinac Island. Though the effort proved unnecessary, the island village located below the fort began to thrive, and the island eventually became United States territory as a result of the Americans victory in the Revolutionary War.

Fort Mackinac

During the summer of 1812, again war broke out between America and Great Britain. Mackinac Island’s location in the Great Lakes made it a desired outpost and under the cover darkness, British soldiers landed on the north side of the island and completely surprised the American soldiers with an invasion of Mackinac. Quickly the American soldiers surrendered. Two years later, Americans tried to retake the island’s fort but were badly defeated. This is the only battle ever to take place on Mackinac Island.

After the War of 1812 ended, John Jacob Astor established the American Fur Company’s northern department headquarters on Mackinac Island, and by the 1820s the fur trade was flourishing. Millions of dollars of furs passed through Mackinac’s Main Street in the 1820s.

Soon Mackinac Island’s primary industry transitioned to commercial fishing. During the 1830s the population in Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo and the Midwest in general, surged. Great Lakes transportation moved from canoes to schooner and steamboats, thus providing the perfect distribution and market for the angler’s catch.

Soldier's uniforms at Fort Mackinac 

Fort Michilimackinac, now named Fort Mackinac, became more and more obsolete as the United Sates frontier spread westward. At the outbreak of the Civil War, the fort’s soldiers marched south to join in the Union efforts, leaving Fort Mackinac abandoned except for a single caretaker soldier . . . With the exception of the summer of 1862 when the fort served as a prison for three affluent and influential confederate sympathizers from Tennessee. That is fascinating!

After the Civil War had ended, the United States soldiers returned to Fort Mackinac and with them came a throng of tourist. After a long, grueling war, American’s were looking for a peaceful place to spend the summer months. Mackinac Island was a perfect fit. In response to its growing popularity, the United States created Mackinac National Park in 1875. This was America’s second national park, established only three years after Yellowstone.

The Grand Hotel

The Victorians came to Mackinac Island by the boat full. The need for hotels, restaurants, and other businesses to sustain and entertain the visitors added another layer to the island’s growth. The Mission House and Lakeview Hotels were among the earliest established hotels to serve the summer tourists. In 1887, The Grand Hotel opened its doors. The Grand Hotel was a palatial resort style hotel that catered to the rich and famous of the times. Today it is one of the most popular historic destination in the U.S.

One of the most interesting and popular facts about Mackinac is that automobiles are banned on the island. Though the smell is the first hint you receive when arriving, horses are a popular means of transportation. Of course, you may also use peddle bikes or walk where you need to go. This only adds to the appeal of Mackinac, but be careful crossing the streets in town . . . some of those bike riders are crazy drivers!

My family and I visited Mackinac Island this summer. We fell in love all over again with the history and charm of the area and hope to return very soon. If you’re ever in northern Michigan, Mackinac Island is a “must visit” location. 

If you have already had the pleasure of visiting this charming island, please tell us your favorite place to go while there, or maybe your favorite thing to see. I'd love to hear from some frequent Mackinac Island visitors! 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Oh, I almost forgot—no matter how Mackinac is spelled (Mackinaw or Mackinac) it’s always pronounced –aw–.

Be blessed,

Michele K. Morris   

Lighthouses and Small Towns--Eagle Harbor, Michigan

Last month I blogged about the real historical town of Eagle Harbor, Michigan, which is tucked into the woods on a little slat of land that juts up into Lake Superior. I lso mentioned I had a novel out about the very real Eagle Harbor Lighthouse, and a fictional lightkeeper. Of course writing about a fictional lightkeeper led to some rather interesting research about lighthouses.

 Did you know that lighthouse location was very important to lightkeepers? Even though Eagle Harbor, Michigan was small and isolated in the late 1800s (which hasn't changed much between then and today), being appointed to the Eagle Harbor Lighthouse was still considered a very desirable position for a lightkeeper to have.

The Eagle Harbor Lighthouse is located at the edge of an actual town. A lot of historic lighthouses are in far less pleasant locations. Simply put, wherever there was danger of a ship running aground, a lighthouse was constructed. Sometimes this meant lighthouses sat on little slats of rock in the middle of one of the Great Lakes. Below is a picture of the Gull Rock lighthouse, which is no longer operational today. There's no town surrounding the Gull Rock lighthouse. In fact, even going to to the mainland to get help could be risky and impossible at times. There's one story about the lightkeeper's wife giving birth to a child inside the boat her husband was rowing to the mainland.

To a lightkeeper's way of thinking, the very best lightkeeping positions were located in towns with church and schools and stores. They offered a lightkeeper the chance to raise his family in a community rather than in complete isolation. Eagle Harbor, Michigan was one of those towns, as were several other locations along the Great Lakes. The lighthouses at Copper Harbor, Michigan and Ontonagon, Michigan were also considered good posts to have for this same reason.

Historical lighthouses, along with the ones still active today, served one of two purposes. They either worked as a beacon to guide ships to a harbor entrance, or they worked as a warning signal to keep ships away from dangerous stretches of water. The Gull Rock Lighthouse served as a warning to keep ships away from the rock ridge several miles off the shoreline. The coastline surrounding Eagle Harbor is rocky and rather treacherous, which made the light at Eagle Harbor doubly important. The lighthouse served the duel functions of not only marking where the harbor entrance was but also marking the rocks that rim the harbor. If a ship's pilot missed the safe entrance, then the ship would wreck. And yes, there are accounts of ships wrecking off the coast of Eagle Harbor in calm waters.

Do you enjoy lighthouses? Have you ever toured one before? Have you ever read a novel set at a lighthouse? What about the nature of lighthouses appeals to you?

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On Sale for $2.99

Tressa Danell is finished with men—from the wastrel who left her a widow, to the smelly trapper who keeps proposing, to the banker who wants to repossess her bakery. Every hour is spent working to payoff her late husband’s debt and keep a roof over her son’s head, though it’s doubtful she can do both for very long. But one thing’s certain—she’ll never be beholden to a man again. 

Tired of living in a small town that blames him for actions his father committed ten years ago, Mac Oakton is scheduled to leave Eagle Harbor. So why does the pretty widow at the bakery keep tugging at his heart? He can’t get involved in her predicament when he’ll only be around for two more weeks. 

But when Tressa’s burdens overwhelm her, they both face a decision. Can Mac set his own plans aside to help? And can Tressa accept his support if that means giving up her independence ... and being obligated to a man again?

View Love's Unfading Light on Amazon--on sale for $2.99. For more information about Naomi Rawlings and her Eagle Harbor Series, visit www.naomirawlings.com.

Historical Towns: Welcome to Eagle Harbor, Michigan

by Naomi Rawlings

Do you enjoy visiting small towns? What about towns tucked away and hidden in an obscure place most people wouldn't notice? Some of my favorite towns to visit are the small, out-of-the-way, historical ones. I always find myself asking questions like, "Why was this town established?" "What caused people to settle here?" And if it's something of a ghost town, I then wonder, "Why did people move away?"

Most of the time these questions pop into my mind as I'm driving through somewhere, and I don't really think about them again. But a writer's brain can be a bit of a scary place, and sometimes I find my imagination running away from me. That's how I ended up with the Eagle Harbor Series.

Eagle Harbor, Michigan is located on the northernmost tip of Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula. It sticks up into the wild, cold, and often-dangerous waters of Lake Superior, which in turn makes it prone to violent storms. Driving through the town today will only take you a handful of minutes. You'll pass several blocks of houses, a restaurant, hotel, and active lighthouse before proceeding up the Lake Superior coast to the next small town.

Russel Harrison Photography

While it's a beautiful place to live, there's absolutely nothing around it. So when I visited the town for the first time (probably about 5 years ago now), I found myself asking what prompted people to live there? Why would a town form way up north in the middle of nowhere on a forgotten stretch of shoreline?

The answer is the shipping industry. With all the trucks, railroads, and cargo planes we're surrounded with today, it's easy to forget that transporting freight used to be done solely by ships, and then by a combination of ships and rail. For a town like Eagle Harbor, which gets over 200 inches of snow per winter, running a rail line all the way up to the norther tip of the continental U.S. wasn't very practical, nor was keeping the rail clear of snow in the winter.

However, the richest copper deposit in the United States runs just a few miles inland from Eagle Harbor. With it's natural bay that offers protection from Lake Superior, Eagle Harbor developed into a busy but small shipping town in the 1840s. The town saw a lot of people move through it's port, but most of them didn't stay. They were headed inland to work the mines. As the copper mines along the Keweenaw Fault continued to produce and the mining towns grew bigger, there was more and more copper to ship out if this isolated area, as well as a growing demand for food and supplies to be shipped in to the mining towns. Several natural harbors along the Keweenaw Peninsula soon grew into small but busy shipping towns, one of which was Eagle Harbor.

When I started writing the Eagle Harbor Series, I was captivated by how isolated the town was, especially since the shipping season only ran for six months. During the winter, ice and other weather conditions made shipping on Lake Superior impossible. (Actually, Lake Superior is still closed to shipping today for two to three months every winter because of how dangerous the lake is.)

So I endeavored to write about a town where everyone knows everyone else, where the mistakes you made 10 or 20 years ago are never quite forgotten, but neither are the good deeds you do. And of course, with the importance of shipping, I simply had to make the first book in the series about the very real, very historic Eagle Harbor Lighthouse and a lightkeeper. It's been a fun series for me because of the little parts of history I've gotten to bring to life. I hope some of you will enjoy reading about it.

What about you? Do you enjoy visiting historical small towns? Do you enjoy novels based on real places that you can visit today? Or do you prefer a completely fictional setting?

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Tressa Danell is finished with men—from the wastrel who left her a widow, to the smelly trapper who keeps proposing, to the banker who wants to repossess her bakery. Every hour is spent working to payoff her late husband’s debt and keep a roof over her son’s head, though it’s doubtful she can do both for very long. But one thing’s certain—she’ll never be beholden to a man again. 

Tired of living in a small town that blames him for actions his father committed ten years ago, Mac Oakton is scheduled to leave Eagle Harbor. So why does the pretty widow at the bakery keep tugging at his heart? He can’t get involved in her predicament when he’ll only be around for two more weeks. 

But when Tressa’s burdens overwhelm her, they both face a decision. Can Mac set his own plans aside to help? And can Tressa accept his support if that means giving up her independence ... and being obligated to a man again?

View Love's Unfading Light on Amazon. For more information about Naomi Rawlings and her Eagle Harbor Series, visit www.naomirawlings.com.

The Oldest Settlement in the Midwest

By Naomi Rawlings

Whether it was settled 100 years ago or 1000, every town has its own, unique history. But in the United States, only a handful of towns can claim to be 350 years old. Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan (pronounced soo saint marie) is one of those places. Settled only 40 years after the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, it became an important fur-trading settlement.

Why trade fur at Sault Ste. Marie, of all places? Because Sault Ste. Marie is located at the rapids of the Saint Mary's River, effectively connecting Lake Superior to Lake Huron. The rapids fall 21 feet from Lake Superior to the lower Lake Huron and necessitate a portage to cross. This afforded a natural gathering place for Native Americans to trade furs collected along the shores of Lake Superior, and the rapids also provided an abundance of fish.

The Native Americans established a village there possibly as long as 2,000 years ago. The first Europeans traveled to Sault Ste. Marie in 1668. This was Father Jaques Marquette, a Jesuit priest who would go on to become the first explorer of the upper Mississippi River and its tributaries. Father Marquette had heard of the Native American village went there to found a Catholic mission.

Sault Ste. Marie grew in prominence as more and more trappers and fur traders flooded the northern Great Lakes. Sitting right on the border between Canada and the United States, it was often fought over between French and British trappers until the area was finally ceded to the United States in the early 1800s.

Shipping remained an important part of the local economy as natural resources were harvested from the wilds of Lake Superior and shipped to more populated areas. In 1855, the first lock in America was built so that ships no longer needed to portage the rapids.

Today, the city of Sault Ste. Marie still exists. There are four locks, operated by the Army Corps of Engineers, and they are the busiest locks in the world, transferring more freight each year than the Panama and Suez Canals combined.

Have any of you ever heard of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan before? Are you surprised to learn that this little northern city has been around for 350 years? Were you aware that the locks connecting Lake Superior and Lake Huron are the busiest in the world?

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A mother of two young boys, Naomi Rawlings spends her days picking up, cleaning, playing and, of course, writing. Her husband pastors a small church in Michigan’s rugged Upper Peninsula, where her family shares its ten wooded acres with black bears, wolves, coyotes, deer and bald eagles. Naomi and her family live only three miles from Lake Superior, where the scenery is beautiful and they average 200 inches of snow per winter. She is looking forward to the release of her fourth novel, Falling for the Enemy, in January 2015. For more information about Naomi, please visit her website at www.NaomiRawlings.com.