The Keweenaw Underwater Preserve is a preservation area in the U.S. state of

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. Located in

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

, it protects waters that lie offshore

Keweenaw Peninsula The Keweenaw Peninsula ( , sometimes locally ) is the northernmost part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It projects into Lake Superior and was the site of the first copper boom in the United States, leading to its moniker of "Copper Country." As o ...

Keweenaw Point

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, which oversees the Keweenaw Underwater Preserve, calls the point of Keweenaw Peninsula a "catcher's mitt" for storm-beset

Lake freighter Lake freighters, or lakers, are bulk carrier vessels that operate on the Great Lakes of North America. These vessels are traditionally called boats, although classified as ships. Since the late 19th century, lakers have carried bulk cargoes of m ...

s and other boats in the southern half of Lake Superior. Numerous wrecks, overseen as part of this preserve, can be seen here and are the object of recreational dives. One of the most recent large boats on the Great Lakes to be a total loss, the former

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...

cutter ''

Mesquite Mesquite is a common name for several plants in the genus ''Prosopis'', which contains over 40 species of small leguminous trees. They are native to dry areas in the Americas. They have extremely long roots to seek water from very far under grou ...

'', grounded off Keweenaw in 1989 and is now a diveable wreck in this preserve. The largest wreck in the preserve is the freighter ''William C. Moreland'' which ran aground in 1910 and is a diveable, protected wreck resting in 40-feet of water.

References

External links

Keweenaw Underwater Preserve

Michigan Underwater Preserve Council The Michigan Underwater Preserve Council (MUPC) is a private, non-profit, volunteer driven organization that oversees activities relating to the Michigan Underwater Preserves. The council was formed in order to educate divers and non-divers on the ...

{{Protected Areas of Michigan Protected areas of Keweenaw County, Michigan Protected areas of Houghton County, Michigan Marine parks of Michigan