Alpena's Advenshore

By Thomas Ludens

When you cruise toward Alpena, as you come along the northeast coast of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula and traverse the clear, cold waters of Lake Huron, you are not simply approaching a quaint town of some 12,000 people. You are passing over 160 shipwrecks and a veritable cross-section of maritime history.

That’s because when you cruise to Alpena, you can’t help but cross the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. This 448-square-mile preserve is framed by the northern and southern edges of Alpena County, and its headquarters is right in the heart of town.

The Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center is an indispensable stop for any visiting boater. Housed in the former finishing plant of the Fletcher Paper Company, it is a great place to find out about all the shipwrecks your boat just passed over and to discover this area’s varied boating history. Known for extreme weather, treacherous waters and dense fog, this part of Lake Huron has claimed more than 200 ships over the centuries.

Since 1679, when LaSalle’s Griffon passed by Thunder Bay, countless ships have traversed the coast off of Alpena on their way to outposts at Mackinaw, Sault Ste. Marie, Green Bay and elsewhere. Due to its strategic location along shipping lanes, and because the bay and nearby islands provided shelter for vessels during inclement weather, virtually all types of vessels employed on the open lakes regularly passed along this important trade route.

The sanctuary and center contain examples of nearly all of these. From wooden schooners to early steel-hulled steamers, as well as several unusual vessel types besides, the collection reflects a long history of transitions in ship architecture and construction.

The center’s newest exhibit, Exploring the Shipwreck Century, puts Thunder Bay’s crowded lake floor on display. Special features include a floor to ceiling mural depicting a stormy Thunder Bay and a replica of the back section of the Cornelia B. Windiate, a schooner that sank in 1871 and now lies on the bottom of Lake Huron.

However, the shipwrecks are only one part of Alpena’s rich maritime history: equally important, and more accessible, are the lighthouses that dot the area shoreline.

To show off these beautiful and historical structures, Alpena hosts the annual Great Lakes Lighthouse Festival. The four-day event includes all kinds of activities and events. There are aerial, car and, of course, boat tours. There are performers, vendors, preservation groups, artists, authors and onlookers all in attendance. But though the event is centralized in Alpena, the “lights are on” from Tawas Point Lighthouse to Mackinac Bridge. So, if you time it right, you can cruise to or from Alpena from either the north or the south and follow the lights—and the festival—into town.

This year, the festival begins on Thursday, October 9, and ends on Sunday, October 12. The hub of the many activities is the Thunder Bay Recreation Center, which is located a bit north of downtown. A welcome party there will kick off the festival on opening night, and 75 vendor and exhibitor booths will be set up in the building throughout the weekend.

The number of events, tours and activities offered in this single four-day span is staggering. Helicopter tours, a provisional museum, an auction, presentations and concerts—this is a small sample of all that will be on hand. With so much, the festival draws visitors from all over and raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for lighthouse groups.

Whether or not your Alpena visit coincides with the festival, the lighthouses are worth seeing. You can do so from your own vessel, but the Middle Island Light Station Tours offer an excellent opportunity to get an up-close, guided look. These narrated three- to four-hour tours include a short boat ride, a nature walk, a viewing of restoration efforts and photo opportunities. Volunteers and visitors depart at 10:00 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays from May through October, weather permitting.

But while it does offer a wealth of historical-educational opportunities, Alpena is not some staid living-history museum. By car, it is centrally located on Michigan’s Sunrise Side Coastal Highway, a 200-mile stretch of US 23 that is graced with scenic views, undeveloped wild lands, spacious beaches and recreation areas for hiking, biking, cross-country skiing and snowmobiling. By boat, it offers an idyllic anchorage in a vibrant town on a stretch of sparsely populated shoreline.

Arriving here, you will likely want to moor your vessel at Alpena’s Municipal Marina, a warm and friendly port located on Thunder Bay. A full-service marina, it offers a maintenance/repair facility, a marina store, pump-out, gasoline and diesel. Transient slips can accomodate boats up to 60-plus feet in length, and the rate is approximately a dollar per foot. From June 1 through the Labor Day weekend, dockhands are available seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Since the marina is located in Alpena’s Downtown District, it is only a short distance away from stores and restaurants.

Nestled between the shores of Lake Huron and the Thunder Bay River, the historic downtown contains some 200 businesses. On North 2nd Avenue, there’s Jerry & Mary’s Antiques and Collectibles, which offers everything from bear traps to more mundane fishing lures. On Chisholm Street, there is Cobblestone Bike and Vac, which sells unicycles and scooters too, and Take 5 Deli, which mostly sells sandwiches. Riverfest, which focuses on the area’s lumbering heritage, is held along the riverfront each summer; and Michigan Brown Trout Festival comes to the harbor itself.

This may be a small sample of Alpena’s downtown offerings, but it’s indicative of the quirky and charming diversity on hand. The retail, dining and entertainment options are great for a town this size, and more than ample for a visit.

Also downtown and very near the harbor, Bay View Park’s Fine Arts Shell hosts events throughout the summer. Between City Band Concerts, the True North Radio “Concerts in the Park” series and the Thunder Bay Arts Council Summer Concerts in the Park series, there are at least two performances each week, all summer long. The park also has basketball and tennis courts and play and picnic areas, making it a good place to stretch out after you’ve moored.
Just down the shore from there, you’ll find the life guard-supervised Starlite Beach. Farther down from that, you’ll come to Mich-E-Kewis Park. It has many standard park amenities—a swimming beach, volleyball courts, horseshoe pits—and it also has something a little less common: an area specifically designated for kite flying.

And north of downtown, on Johnson Street, the Besser Museum houses everything from a Picasso and a planetarium inside to a historic bank, church and school outside. With its eclectic collection of art, history and science objects and exhibits, it can satisfy a diversity of visitor interests.

If you come to Alpena without your boat, there are still plenty of opportunities to get out on the water. Canoes and kayaks can be rented and taken on a trail of shallow shipwrecks. Charter boats, both for angling and scuba diving, are easy to find—as are both the fish and the shipwrecks in this part of Lake Huron.

Onshore and off, above the waterline and well below, Alpena offers the opportunity for all kind of adventures—and as many accommodations.

alpenacvb.com