The Thumb Area Bottomland Preserve, also called the Thumb Area Underwater Preserve, is a preservation area in

Lake Huron Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is shared on the north and east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the south and west by the U.S. state of Michigan. The name of the lake is derived from early French ex ...

in the U.S. state of

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, ...

. It is in size and is located off Michigan's Thumb north of

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Description

The Thumb Area Bottomland Preserve protects bottomlands off

Pointe aux Barques Pointe Aux Barques Township ( ) is a civil township of Huron County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 15 at the 2020 census. Pointe Aux Barques is located at the tip of the Thumb on the Lower Peninsula. With a permanent populat ...

and the beach port towns of

Harbor Beach Harbor Beach is a city in Huron County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,604 at the 2020 census. History The earliest settlers to this area arrived in 1837 and established a sawmill for processing lumber. The settlement even ...

, Huron City, and Port Austin. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has counted 10 known

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. It results from the event of ''shipwrecking'', which may be intentional or unintentional. There were approximately thre ...

s within the boundaries protected by the preserve. As in most of the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

, most of the shipwrecks predate the consolidation of federal marine safety services into the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

in 1915. The foundered SS ''Daniel J. Morrell'', a

lake freighter Lake freighters, or lakers, are bulk carriers operating on the Great Lakes of North America. These vessels are traditionally called boats, although classified as ships. Freighters typically have a long, narrow hull, a raised pilothouse, and the ...

which split in two and sank in 1966 with a loss of 28 lives, also lies off the shore of Michigan's Thumb, but outside the boundaries of the preserve. The preserve protects a network of limestone

sea cave A sea cave, is also known as a littoral cave, a type of cave formed primarily by the wave action of the sea. The primary process involved is erosion. Sea caves are found throughout the world, actively forming along present coastlines and as re ...

s off Port Austin. Near Port Austin is the largely depopulated former town of Grindstone City, where

grindstones A grindstone, also known as grinding stone, is a sharpening stone used for grinding or sharpening ferrous tools, used since ancient times. Tools are sharpened by the stone's abrasive qualities that remove material from the tool through friction ...

were quarried. Some of the specialized stones were lost overboard near the quarries and can be seen underwater as of 2009.

References

External links

Thumb Area Bottomland Preserve
Michigan Underwater Preserve Council {{Protected Areas of Michigan Protected areas of Huron County, Michigan Marine parks of Michigan Shipwreck discoveries by John Steele Lake Huron