Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore stretches for about 35 miles along Lake Michigan. They have a nice visitor center, located in Empire where I was able to get my first National Park passport stamp in the mid-west region.
While we were waiting for the park documentary movie to begin, we were amazed by the four-panel quilt hanging in the theater. Joani gives the work some scale. If I hit the lottery, I would have to have this!
Sleeping Bear Dunes, 2013
Ann Loveless
textile applique
What a masterpiece! (Close-up on panel four)
(another close-up on panel four)
We returned to the Sleeping Bear Point Coast Guard Station west of Glen Arbor. This time we let Sam stay at home so we didn't have to leave him in the car (no dogs allowed) while we visited the buildings and exhibits. In the boathouse, we saw some of the boats used to save lives from the more than 100 shipwrecks in the area. What I liked best about the boathouse was its construction. The entire post and beam frame was pegged - no nails were used. I also loved the detail in the roof with the flared roof and the round cupola.
The Breeches Buoy (upper left corner of the picture below) helped get sailors to shore when their ship ran aground. Sailors would climb into the breeches buoy like a pair of pants before being pulled ashore.
The Manby mortar fired a projectile that carried a small rope to a wrecked vessel. Then the Breeches Buoy would be sent back and forth carrying survivors. In one case, a Manby mortar helped save 291 lives from Ayrshire in January 1850.
The faking box below was used to arrange the rope so that it would not tangle as it was pulled out by a projectile fired from a cannon.
The Faking Box had wooden pins used to fake (coil) the line. Before attaching the line to the Lyle Gun Bullet, rescuers would invert the pin board and allow the line to drop into the lid of the box. Then the line was ready to play out smoothly when the shot was fired. The shot line was then tied to the heavier Hawser line for rigging the Breeches Buoy.
The main house provided quarters for the Coast Guard crew. It reminded me of a fire station with beds and a small closet for each man. They were always ready to jump into action whenever a ship was in trouble.
About a mile away in the blacksmith shop volunteers demonstrated iron working skills from the 1800's. We made a hasty retreat as two school buses pulled to the curb disgorging lots of loud students happy to be out of class for the day.
We finished our day's explorations with the "Dune Climb." It seemed like a good idea to climb until we were tired then it would be an easy downhill trip back to the car. What I had not considered was the temperature, a sunny 91 degrees, made the sand nearly unbearably hot. There was no way I was going to climb barefoot and flip-flops were only a little better.
Like other dunes we have climbed, we never seemed to reach the highest point. Each time we crested a hill there was another even higher dune in front of us. Sometimes you had to go down one dune to get to the next one, so getting back to the car was not as much downhill as I would have liked.
This is the view of the "Dune Climb" from the road. The climbers look like little specks.
It was 91 degrees and that sand was hot! Be sure to wear shoes!!!
Looking back from whence we came you can see Glen Lake.
We were told it was nearly 3 miles before you reach the shore (and then 3 miles back!) Once Lake Michigan came into view, we decided that was enough.
You can see in the panorama below we were further up than most people. It was very quiet and secluded. It might have been a good day to bring a few beach towels and get a little sun.
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