The discovery of hematite in northern Minnesota during the late nineteenth century spurred a lot of commercial maritime traffic near De Tour, Michigan with almost all water traffic coming or going to Lake Superior taking the De Tour Passage running between De Tour Village on the easternmost tip of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Drummond Island. Drummond Island also became a popular stop for commercial maritime traffic because of its dolomite limestone and aggregate quarries.
De Tour got its name from the French term ("de tour") for "the left" because ships and canoes had to turn to the left as they passed by the point going to or from Mackinac Island and from Detroit on to Sault Ste. Marie.
The Indians in the area went with the similarly descriptive name "Giwdeonaning", which meant "point we go around in canoe".
No matter what people called it, the passage could be perilous. The De Tour Passage Underwater Preserve is a preservation area on northern Lake Huron where the wrecks of many ships that had difficulty navigating the narrow passage foundered and sank. The preserve surrounds Drummond Island and includes all of the De Tour Passage and some neighboring sections of Lake Huron and the St. Mary's River.
The De Tour Passage still provides a major gateway to the north.
Several parks and boat launches along M-134 near De Tour offer great opportunities to do a little freighter watching as we discovered during our visit to the area last summer.
We were also fortunate enough to spot a couple of loons out in the lake as we sat and watched for the big ships.
If you're adventurous enough to want to paddle in the area, check out the Drummond Island Tourism Association for some tips about navigating the area and looking for shipwrecks in the preserve.
Interested in life on modern Great Lakes freighters? Check out Deckhand: Life on Freighters of the Great Lakes by Nelson Haydamacker and Allan D. Millar, Ships of the Great Lakes: An Inside Look at the World's Largest Inland Fleet by Patrick D. Lapinski or Lake Boats: the Enduring Vessels of the Great Lakes by Greg McDonnell.
© Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved
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