The Shelldrake River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
accessed January 3, 2012 river in Chippewa County on the

Upper Peninsula The Upper Peninsula of Michigan—also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. or Yoop—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 b ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. It flows through

Tahquamenon Falls State Park The Tahquamenon Falls State Park is a public recreation area in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the second largest of List of Michigan state parks, Michigan's state parks. Bordering on Lake Superior, most of the park is located within Whitef ...

and the Lake Superior State Forest into

Lake Superior Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. Lake Michigan–Huron has a larger combined surface area than Superior, but is normally considered tw ...

. The Shelldrake River's headwaters are an undefined area in the Betsy Lake Wetland, an

Eastern Hemlock ''Tsuga canadensis'', also known as eastern hemlock, eastern hemlock-spruce, or Canadian hemlock, and in the French-speaking regions of Canada as ''pruche du Canada'', is a coniferous tree native to eastern North America. It is the state tree of ...

and

tamarack ''Larix laricina'', commonly known as the tamarack, hackmatack, eastern larch, black larch, red larch, or American larch, is a species of larch native to Canada, from eastern Yukon and Inuvik, Northwest Territories east to Newfoundland, and als ...

forest in the roadless area of northern Tahquamenon Falls State Park. This wetland, in Chippewa County and adjacent Luce County, is dominated by Lake Superior-fed rain and snow. For mapping purposes, the Shelldrake River is depicted as flowing out of Sheephead Lake, a little-visited lake in the Betsy Lake Wetland area. Much of the Shelldrake River's course passes through the Betsy Lake Wetland, and an alternate name for the river is the "Betsy River". The Shelldrake River flows generally west-to-east towards its mouth in Shelldrake, Michigan on

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 ...

of Lake Superior. A dam impounds the river northwest of Shelldrake; a state-run rustic campground at the dam pond offers 17 spaces, mostly for fishermen seeking

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus ''Esox'' (pikes). They are commonly found in brackish water, moderately salty and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). T ...

. Local large mammals include

moose The moose (: 'moose'; used in North America) or elk (: 'elk' or 'elks'; used in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is the world's tallest, largest and heaviest extant species of deer and the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is also the tal ...

and

black bear Black bear or Blackbear may refer to: Animals * American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species * Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species Music * Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...

. There is a noted

sandhill crane The sandhill crane (''Antigone canadensis'') is a species of large Crane (bird), cranes of North America and extreme northeastern Siberia. The common name of this bird refers to its habitat, such as the Platte River, on the edge of Nebraska's S ...

nesting ground near the mouth of the river.

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (March 28, 1793 – December 10, 1864) was an American geographer, geologist, and ethnologist, noted for his early studies of Native American cultures, as well as for his 1832 expedition to the source of the Mississippi R ...

camped at the mouth of the Shelldrake on June 18–19, 1820, finding a small village of

Ojibwa The Ojibwe (; syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the northern plains, extending into the subarctic and thro ...

who fished for whitefish in the lake. The ''Shelldrake River'' should not be confused with the Sheldrake River in

Westchester County, New York Westchester County is a County (United States), county located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, bordering the Long Island Sound and the Byram River to its east and the Hudson River on its west. The c ...

References

{{authority control Rivers of Chippewa County, Michigan Rivers of Luce County, Michigan Rivers of Michigan Tributaries of Lake Superior