Sept. 2 & 3, 2016 St. Joseph’s/ Benton Harbor, MI

We’ve been so grateful to have the Michigan State Harbors of Refuge to plan around as we make progress, slow as it has been, down Lake Michigan. Located every 30 miles or so, they look a lot alike... inviting sandy beaches on each side of long breakwater walls reaching as much as 1/2 mile out from shore with a lighthouse perched on the end... a concrete-sided canal leading into the town... a state-funded municipal marina, with perhaps private marinas, if the town is big enough...  a river or lake serving as a surge basin for when the waves build up from the Wisconsin-side of Lake Michigan, 60 to 80 miles away, and crash over the breakwater or roll straight into the canal. How did every town come to have a lake or river adequate to the task? It goes back to the 1800’s when “logging was king”. In order to get the timbers transported to centers of industry, large sailing ships, barges and later freighters needed to make landfall out of the rough waters to get loaded. Coves were dug deeper and wider, resulting in lakes; river banks were extended and rivers dredged to allow large, deep-drafted vessels to reach the intended cargo. Today those harbor towns have become the life’s blood of tourism for Michigan’s lakeshore. Leland has the Leland River leading into Lake Lelanau. Frankfort has Lake Betsie. Ludington has Pere Marquette Lake. Muskegon has Muskegon Lake. Grand Haven has the Grand River flowing 25 miles from Grand Rapids as well as Spring Lake. Holland has Lake Macatawa. South Haven has the Black River. St. Joseph’s/Benton Harbor has the St. Joseph’s River. 

Last night around 7:30 we heard the horn blow for the bascule bridge near our marina to open and...low and behold... the 639 foot Saginaw self-unloading bulk carrier came into view! Carrying tons of crushed stone from Meldrum Bay on Manitoulin Island in the North Channel of Canada, she positioned herself for unloading. Within 4 hours she had created four huge aggregrate piles on the shore of Benton Harbor, had turned herself around in the turning basin and was on her way by midnight! Her next load might be coal, wheat, salt or more crushed stone. Wow! Shipping is alive and well in Michigan.

Created By Darcy O Campbell