Straits of Mackinac Shipwreck Preserve

The Straits of Mackinac Shipwreck Preserve is a 148 square miles (383.3 km²) state preserve

Michigan Underwater Preserves

Michigan Underwater Preserves or Michigan Bottomland Preserves are protected areas of the Great Lakes on Michigan's coast. The eleven designated areas, comprising a surface area of over , are considered to be "Underwater museums" and serve to protect concentrations of shipwrecks, unique geologic...

in and around the Straits of Mackinac

Straits of Mackinac

The Straits of Mackinac is the strip of water that connects two of the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, and separates the Lower Peninsula of Michigan from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It is a shipping lane providing passage for raw materials and finished goods, connecting, for...

. The preserve is divided in two by the Mackinac Bridge

Mackinac Bridge

The Mackinac Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Straits of Mackinac to connect the non-contiguous Upper and Lower peninsulas of the U.S. state of Michigan. Opened in 1957, the bridge is the third longest in total suspension in the world and the longest suspension bridge between anchorages...

. The waters of the preserve include the waters offshore from Mackinaw City

Mackinaw City, Michigan

Mackinaw City is a village in Emmet and Cheboygan counties in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2000 census the population was 859. The name "Mackinaw City" is a bit of a misnomer as it is actually a village...

and St. Ignace

St. Ignace, Michigan

Saint Ignace, usually written as St. Ignace, is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 2,678. It is the county seat of Mackinac County. From the Lower Peninsula, St. Ignace is the gateway to the Upper Peninsula.St...

, as well as all or part of the shorelines of Bois Blanc Island

Bois Blanc Island (Michigan)

Bois Blanc Island is coterminous with Bois Blanc Township, Mackinac County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The island covers about and is about 12 miles long, 6 miles wide and has 6 lakes. Bois Blanc is located in Lake Huron southeast of Mackinac Island and almost due north of the city of...

, Mackinac Island

Mackinac Island

Mackinac Island is an island and resort area covering in land area, part of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located in Lake Huron, at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac, between the state's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. The island was home to a Native American settlement before European...

, Round Island

Round Island (Michigan)

Round Island is an uninhabited island in Mackinac County of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located in the Straits of Mackinac, which connect Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. The Native Americans called the island "Nissawinagong."...

, and St. Helena Island.

The preserve contains at least eleven identified wrecks

Shipwreck

A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....

. Frequent fog and congested shipping added to the count of shipwrecks in the Straits area. Half a dozen lighthouse

Lighthouse

A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....

s in and around the preserve testify to the dangers that existed prior to the invention of 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...

in the 1940s. Tragedies have continued, however. One modern wreck within the boundaries of the preserve is the Cedarville

SS Cedarville

SS Cedarville was a bulk carrier that carried limestone on the Great Lakes in the mid 1900s until it sank after a collision with another ship, SS Topdalsfjord.-Service history:...

, a limestone lake freighter

Lake freighter

Lake freighters, or Lakers, are bulk carrier vessels that ply the Great Lakes. The best known was the , the most recent and largest major vessel to be wrecked on the Lakes. These vessels are traditionally called boats, although classified as ships. In the mid-20th century, 300 lakers worked the...

that sank in 1965 after a collision. For more information on the wrecks, see "Shipwrecks of the Straits of Mackinac" by Dr. Charles E. Feltner and Jeri Baron Feltner.

Divers also visit underwater formations of Mackinac breccia

Breccia

Breccia is a rock composed of broken fragments of minerals or rock cemented together by a fine-grained matrix, that can be either similar to or different from the composition of the fragments....

near Mackinac Island; one such formation, the Rock Maze, is offshore from Arch Rock

Arch Rock (Mackinac Island)

Arch Rock is a geologic formation on Mackinac Island in Michigan. It is a natural limestone arch formed during the Nipissing post-glacial period, a period of high Lake Huron levels following the end of the Wisconsin glaciation...

. Further east off Arch Rock, a drowned, 100-foot-high (30 m) waterfall formation, Mackinac Falls

Mackinac Falls

Mackinac Falls is a drowned 100-foot -high waterfall formation under the waters of Lake Huron. The formation, which lies approximately 1 mile east of Arch Rock on Mackinac Island, was the former outflow point for water flowing eastward from postglacial Lake Michigan...

, was discovered in August 2007.

Known wrecks within the preserve

Wreck Name	Depth	GPS/LAT/LON
William H. Barnum	58’ to 75’	45 44.42’N / 084 37.53’W
Cayuga	75’ to 102’	45 43.19’N / 085 11.36’W
Cedarville SS Cedarville SS Cedarville was a bulk carrier that carried limestone on the Great Lakes in the mid 1900s until it sank after a collision with another ship, SS Topdalsfjord.-Service history:...	40’ to 106’	45 47.13’N / 084 40.13’W
Eber Ward	111’ to 143’	45 48.83’N / 084 49.04’W
Fred McBrier	96’ to 104’	45 48.11’N / 085 55.09’W
Maitland	85’	45 49.20’N / 085 52.29’W
Minneapolis	124’	45 48.32’N / 084 50.08’W
Newell Eddy	165’	45 46.89’N / 084 13.81’W
Northwest	75’	45 47.32’N / 084 51.30’W
Rock Maze	0 to 35'	45 54.862’N / 084 36.402’W
Sandusky	70’ to 85’	45 48.09’N / 084 50.08’W
Martin Stalker	85'	45 47.38’N / 084 41.04’
St. Andrew	62'	45 42.07’N / 084 31.46’W
Uganda	185' to 207'	45 50.30’N / 085 03.49’W
William Young	120'	45 48.79’N / 084 41.91’W

Known wrecks within the preserve

See also