Whitefish Bay is a large bay on the eastern end of

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 ...

between

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 ...

, United States, and

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. It is located between

Whitefish Point Whitefish Point is a cape of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, United States, marking the entry point of Whitefish Bay. It is north of the unincorporated community of Paradise, Michigan. Whitefish Point is known for the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, it ...

in Michigan and Whiskey Point along the more rugged, largely wilderness

Canadian Shield The Canadian Shield (french: Bouclier canadien ), also called the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton (or Laurentia), the anc ...

of Ontario. The

international border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

runs through the bay, which is heavily used by shipping traffic northbound from and southbound to the

Soo Locks The Soo Locks (sometimes spelled Sault Locks but pronounced "soo") are a set of parallel locks, operated and maintained by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District, that enable ships to travel between Lake Superior and the low ...

. The

Whitefish Point Light The Whitefish Point Light is a lighthouse located in Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Located on the southeastern shores of Lake Superior, it sits at the edge of Whitefish Point leading to Whitefish Bay. Constructed in 1849, it i ...

marks the entry of the bay, Ile Parisienne Light is in the middle of the bay, and

Gros Cap Reefs Light The Gros Cap Reefs Light is a lighthouse located at the entrance to St. Marys River (Michigan-Ontario), St. Mary's River from Whitefish Bay of Lake Superior. The light was completed in 1953 and replaced a Lightvessel, lightship stationed there sin ...

lies near the outlet of the bay and the approach to the

Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan Sault Ste. Marie ( ') is the only city in, and county seat of, Chippewa County, Michigan, Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. With a population of 13,337 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the second-most populated ...

. Whitefish Point Lighthouse is the oldest active light on Lake Superior. Part of the lighthouse station houses the

Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum is located at the Whitefish Point Light Station north of Paradise in Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The light station property was transferred to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GLS ...

. It holds artifacts from the shipwrecks listed below and has information on the notable wreck of in 1975, in which all 29 crew were lost. After the Soo Locks opened in 1855 and ship traffic increased on Lake Superior, Whitefish Bay was the site of numerous

shipwrecks A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be intentional or unintentional. Angela Croome reported in January 1999 that there were approximately ...

, often due to hazardous weather. The

Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve The Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve was established in 1987 to protect and conserve shipwrecks and historical resources on of Lake Superior bottomlands in Whitefish Bay and around Whitefish Point, Michigan. The formation of the Michigan Und ...

was established to preserve many of the shipwrecks of Whitefish Bay for

future generations Future generations are cohorts of hypothetical people not yet born. Future generations are contrasted with current and past generations, and evoked in order to encourage thinking about intergenerational equity. The moral patienthood of future ge ...

of sports

divers Diver or divers may refer to: *Diving (sport), the sport of performing acrobatics while jumping or falling into water *Practitioner of underwater diving, including: **scuba diving, **freediving, **surface-supplied diving, **saturation diving, a ...

. Known wrecks include the ships , , ''Drake'', , , , ''Niagara'', , , , and .Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve
/ref>

Gallery

In Popular Culture

The Bay is mentioned in

Gordon Lightfoot Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. (born November 17, 1938) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music. He is credited with helping to define the folk-pop sound of the 1960 ...

's song, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

References

External links

Ile Parisienne Light photographs from Marinas.com

Iroquois Light

Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum

Whitefish Point Bird Observatory
{{Authority control Bays of Michigan Bays of Ontario Bodies of water of Chippewa County, Michigan Landforms of Algoma District Important Bird Areas of Ontario Canada–United States border Bays of Lake Superior

Gallery

In Popular Culture

See also

References

External links