St. Anthony's Rock is a geological

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

sea stack A stack or sea stack is a geological landform consisting of a steep and often vertical column or columns of rock in the sea near a coast, formed by wave erosion. Stacks are formed over time by wind and water, processes of coastal geomorphology. ...

and tourist attraction located in the central part of the city of

St. Ignace, Michigan St. Ignace ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Mackinac County. The city had a population of 2,306 at the 2020 census. St. Ignace Township is located just to the north of the city; the two are administered separat ...

in Michigan's

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 ...

Description

St. Anthony's Rock is a now-landlocked sea stack or sea chimney, geologically similar to several features on

Mackinac Island Mackinac Island ( , ; ; ; ) is an island and resort area, covering in land area, in the U.S. state of Michigan. The name of the island in Odawa is Michilimackinac and "Mitchimakinak" in Ojibwemowin, meaning "Great Turtle". It is located in ...

, such as Arch Rock or

Sugar Loaf A sugarloaf was the usual form in which refined sugar was produced and sold until the late 19th century, when granulated and cube sugars were introduced. A tall cone with a rounded top was the end product of a process in which dark molasses, a ...

. As with nearby

Castle Rock Castle Rock may refer to: Geography Islands * Castle Rock (Alaska), an island off the coast of the U.S. state of Alaska * Castle Rock, Hong Kong, an island of Hong Kong, part of the Po Toi Islands * Castle Rock (Massachusetts), an island in th ...

, a large chunk of Mackinac breccia resisted the

Wisconsinan Glaciation The Wisconsin glaciation, also called the Wisconsin glacial episode, was the most recent glacial period of the North American ice sheet complex, peaking more than 20,000 years ago. This advance included the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, which nucleate ...

, as well as the erosional forces of the subsequent post-glacial

Lake Algonquin Lake Algonquin was a prehistoric proglacial lake that existed in east-central North America at the time of the last ice age. Parts of the former lake are now Lake Huron, Georgian Bay, Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Nipigon, and Lake Nipissing ...

. The post-

Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

meltoff caused the waters of Lake Algonquin to be much higher than the water level of Lake Huron is today, eroding and washing away the softer rock around the stack. A local story claims that the rock was named by visitor (1679) Father

Louis Hennepin Louis Hennepin, OFM (born Antoine Hennepin; ; 12 May 1626 – 5 December 1704) was a Belgian Catholic priest and missionary best known for his activities in North America. A member of the Recollects, a minor branch of the Franciscans, he travel ...

, the chaplain priest of the explorer La Salle. La Salle and Hennepin carried out a program of public devotions to the Roman Catholic saint

Anthony of Padua Anthony of Padua, Order of Friars Minor, OFM, (; ; ) or Anthony of Lisbon (; ; ; born Fernando Martins de Bulhões; 15 August 1195 – 13 June 1231) was a Portuguese people, Portuguese Catholic priest and member of the Order of Friars Minor. ...

, and Hennepin is known to have named

Saint Anthony Falls Saint Anthony Falls, or the Falls of Saint Anthony (), located at the northeastern edge of downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, was the only natural major waterfall on the Mississippi River. Throughout the mid-to-late 1800s, various dams were built ...

after the same saint in 1680. With the coming of rails to St. Ignace in 1881, a railroad train right-of-way snaked directly adjacent to the unusual rock formation. St. Anthony's Rock became a tourist attraction celebrated in postcards and photographs. After a period of neglect the rock was re-celebrated in the 2010s as the site of a small, free-access public park. A small fence protected the rock from vandals, and a sign described its unusual geology and history.

References

{{Coord, 45.86798, -84.72660, type:landmark_region:US-MI, display=title Rock formations of Michigan Landforms of Mackinac County, Michigan Roadside attractions in Michigan Stacks of the United States Tourist attractions in Mackinac County, Michigan

Description

See also

References