Whitefish Point is a cape 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 ...

Upper Peninsula The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by t ...

, United States, marking the entry point of

Whitefish Bay Whitefish Bay is a large bay on the eastern end of Lake Superior between Michigan, United States, and Ontario, Canada. It is located between Whitefish Point in Michigan and Whiskey Point along the more rugged, largely wilderness Canadian Shield ...

. It is north of the unincorporated community of

Paradise, Michigan Paradise is an unincorporated community in Whitefish Township, Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Paradise is on the northeastern portion of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, on the western side of Whitefish Bay, Lake Superior, about ...

. Whitefish Point is known for 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 ...

, its

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 w ...

shoreline, the Whitefish Point Lighthouse and as a prime birding area. Whitefish Point is a designated

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Inte ...

. The Whitefish Point Bird Observatory, an affiliate of the Michigan

Audubon Society The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organ ...

, operates a research and education facility at Whitefish Point. At 17 miles away, Whitefish Point is the nearest navigation mark to the wreckage of the ore freighter SS ''Edmund Fitzgerald'', which sank in 1975. Whitefish Point remains one of the most dangerous shipping areas in the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lak ...

, Known as the graveyard of the Great Lakes, more vessels have been lost in the Whitefish Point area than any other part of Lake Superior. The Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve protects the shipwrecks in a portion of the bay for future generations of sports divers. The Point is a popular place for rock collectors, ship watchers, and bird watching. Whitefish Point's land and water provides a natural corridor for birds that makes it a migratory route of world significance. It is a designated

where the Whitefish Point Bird Observatory conducts important research. Whitefish Point is the home of a former United States Coast Guard station.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Geography of Chippewa County, Michigan Headlands of the United States