The Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore - this is the United States. National Lakeshore on the shores of Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, USA. It stretches 42 miles (67 km) along the coast and covers 73,236 acres (114 sq mi; 296 km). The park offers beautiful views of the hilly coastline between Munising and Grand Marais in Alger County, Michigan, with picturesque cliffs. formations, waterfalls and sand dunes.
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| Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore |
The cliffs depicted derive their name from 15 miles (24 km) of multi-colored sandstone cliffs northeast of Munising. The cliffs reach a height of 200 feet (60 m) above the level of the lake. They are naturally transformed into many small caves, arches and formations that resemble castle towers and human profiles. Near Munising, visitors can also visit Grand Island, much of which is part of the separate Grand Island National Recreation Area.
USA. Congress designated Pictured Rocks as the first National Lakeshore in the United States in 1966. It is run by the National Park Service (NPS) with 22 year-round NPS staff in May 2006 and had 476,888 visits in 2005.
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| Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore |
History
While the coastal waters of the Pictured Rocks are rich in fishing, the sandstone cliffs are dangerous for canoes and other open boats that bend the coastline. In 1658, the fur trader Pierre Esprit Radisson made this risky journey and noticed that his Indian comrades had made an offering of tobacco to the local spirit of the rocks.
During the Romantic era of the 1800s, a number of American writers described their feelings at the sight of the Depicted Rocks. Geologist and American Indian agent Henry Rowe Schoolcraft visited it in 1820 and noted "some of the most sublime and outstanding views of nature." In 1850, George Kopway Kah-Ge-Ga-Ga-Bow, a Mississauga Ojibwa writer and Methodist missionary, published Traditional History and Characteristics. Essays on the Ojibway Nation, in which he quoted General Lewis Cass 's detailed description of the Depicted Rock... Around 1850, developers designed the Grand Island City tourist resort, adjacent to the Picture Cliffs, near what is now Munising.
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| Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore |
After the era of logging ended around 1910, much of the land that makes up the current national lake shore was returned to the state of Michigan for unpaid property taxes. Seeking federal aid and recognition, the state has partnered with the federal government to redevelop the region. In October 1966, Congress passed legislation authorizing the creation of Lake Picturesque Rocks "to preserve for the benefit, inspiration, education, recreational use, and enjoyment of the public a significant portion of the declining coastline of the United States. And associated geographic and scientific features." It was the first National Lakeshore in America.
On April 13, 2006, one of the named rock formations collapsed: the Inner Tower of the Miner's Castle in the Munising Formation. According to Chief Ranger Larry Haha, a local fisherman reported the disaster on his mobile phone. According to environmental researcher Walter Loop of the United States, the Miners' Castle consists of loose cross-bedded sandstone, poorly cemented with secondary quartz. Geological Survey. Rockfalls along cliffs usually occur in spring and autumn due to freeze-thaw conditions.
The Public Land Management Act was signed on March 30, 2009, protecting 11,740 acres (47.5 km) of Depicted Cliffs in the Beaver Basin Desert, spanning 13 miles of coastline.