The Tahquamenon Falls ( or ) are a series of

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several ...

s on the Tahquamenon River, shortly before it empties into

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 ...

, in the northeastern

Upper Peninsula of Michigan 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 ...

. They are the largest waterfalls in Michigan, and one of the largest in the eastern half of North America. The water is noticeably brown in color from the tannins leached from the

cedar Cedar may refer to: Trees and plants *''Cedrus'', common English name cedar, an Old-World genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae *Cedar (plant), a list of trees and plants known as cedar Places United States * Cedar, Arizona * ...

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

s which the river drains, leading to the nickname "Root Beer Falls". The falls are within

Tahquamenon Falls State Park The Tahquamenon Falls State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the second largest of Michigan's state parks. Bordering on Lake Superior, most of the park is located within Whitefish Township in Chippewa County, with the ...

, between the towns of

Newberry Newberry is a surname, a variant of Newbury. Notable people with the surname include: * Booker Newberry III (born 1956), American singer and keyboardist * Brennan Newberry (born, 1990), American professional stock car racing driver * Brian Newb ...

and

Paradise In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in para ...

, and are a popular tourist destination during all seasons. The falls are divided into the Upper and Lower Falls. The Upper Falls consist of a single drop of approximately , where the river is more than across. During the late spring runoff, the river drains as much as of water per second, making the Upper Falls the third most voluminous waterfall east of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...

, after

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the Canada–United States border, border between the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario in Canada and the U.S. state, state ...

and

Cohoes Falls Cohoes Falls ''Kanien'ké:ha'' (Kanyenkeha or Mohawk language) for "a boat is in the water / is actively submerged"">Mohawk language">''Kanien'ké:ha'' (Kanyenkeha or Mohawk language) for "a boat is in the water / is actively submerged"is a wa ...

. The Lower Falls is located about downstream, and consist of five smaller falls cascading around an island. The island can be reached by rowboat from the basin below the Lower Falls, or by a foot bridge constructed in 2022. The Upper Falls are located at , and the Lower Falls are at . The falls take their name from the river, which appears to come from Tahquamenon Island in

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 o ...

, near the mouth of the river; the first written record of the name identifies the island as "Outakouaminan" in a 1671 French map. The Tahquamenon River is mentioned by name in Longfellow's 1855 epic poem ''

The Song of Hiawatha ''The Song of Hiawatha'' is an 1855 epic poem in trochaic tetrameter by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow which features Native American characters. The epic relates the fictional adventures of an Ojibwe warrior named Hiawatha and the tragedy of hi ...

'', as the protagonist builds a birch-bark canoe "In the solitary forest, By the rushing Taquamenaw". A song by

Sufjan Stevens Sufjan Stevens ( ; born July 1, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He has released nine solo studio albums and multiple collaborative albums with other artists. Stevens has received Grammy and Academy Award nom ...

on his album ''

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 t ...

'' is titled after Tahquamenon Falls.

Photo gallery

File:Upper Tahquamenon Falls.jpg, Upper Falls in Winter 2004 File:Tahquamenon_Falls1.JPG, During Autumn File:2009-0618-TahquamenonFalls.jpg, The Upper Falls File:Tahquamenon falls lower.jpg, Tahquamenon Lower Falls File:Upper Tahquamenon falls Panoramic view.jpg, Panoramic

References

External links

* *{{cite web, url=http://www.michigandnr.com/parksandtrails/Details.aspx?id=428&type=SPRK , publisher=Michigan Department of Natural Resources, website=michigandnr.com, title=Tahquamenon Falls State Park Protected areas of Luce County, Michigan Waterfalls of Michigan Landforms of Luce County, Michigan