High of 65 degrees. July 7
I began this day's walk in Manistique along the boardwalk along the shore. Phil (in first photo) walked with me to the lighthouse, then I continued on across the Manistique River and toward the Garden Peninsula.
Manistique--like many coastal Michigan towns--was a major lumbering town in the late 1800s to early 1900s. Even today, there are still deposits of sawdust and woodchips in the lake and on the shore. There are even rough sawn lumber planks that still wash up after storms. It is estimated that over 5 million tons of sawdust were produced during the lumbering years in Manistique, and most of it was dumped into the lake.
I walked the lakeshore on some of these sawdust deposits (third photo above), then over limestone, then onto some sandy stretches before heading inland just a bit to head down the Garden Peninsula on a road. This peninsula has a lot of limestone. After I hiked most of the day, Phil picked me up and we crossed to the west side to Fayette State Park (last photo above). This park is the site of an iron ore refinery that operated for a brief period just after the Civil War. It was the perfect site since the limestone was used to purify the ore, there were hardwood forests to cut in order to make charcoal, and there is a deep water harbor for the ore boats.
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