Amygdaloid Island
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Amygdaloid Island is an island in Lake Superior. It is within the boundary of Isle Royale National Park, a national park located within the U.S. state of Michigan. The island is protected and patrolled by a seasonal ranger station operated by the U.S. National Park Service.
Amygdaloid Island is approximately 3.8 miles (6 km) long but no more than 0.25 miles (0.4 km) wide. Like the rest of the Isle Royale archipelago, the island is an ancient ridge of basalt oriented from the southwest to the northeast.[1]
Amygdaloid Island is separated by Amygdaloid Channel from Isle Royale. It had relatively low visitation until the 1990s, when the growth of sea kayaking made it possible for human-powered visitors to approach the island. The waters of Lake Superior around Amygdaloid Island are notoriously dangerous, however, and inexperienced kayakers are not encouraged to navigate them.
The island is the site of the Amygdaloid Island Flow, a deposit of basaltic lava with silica inclusions. After the lava cooled, the inclusions hardened into pink agate specimens. The agates of Amygdaloid Island are characteristically almond-shaped or amygdaloidal, hence the name Amygdaloid.
[edit] Kamloops victims
On December 7, 1927, lake freighter SS Kamloops, operated by Canada Steamship Lines, was upbound with a crew of 22 seamen and a valuable cargo of papermaking machinery consigned to Thunder Bay, Ontario when it sank during a severe snowstorm and gale on Lake Superior.
The following spring, the remains of several of the seamen who had been aboard the Kamloops on its final voyage were found at a campfire site on Amygdaloid Island. They had evidently died of starvation and exposure. Moreover, there was visual evidence that wolves had scavenged the victims' remains.
A popular local ghost myth recounts that crewmembers of the Kamloops walk Amygdaloid Island, looking desperately for food.
[edit] References
- ^ (2002) Michigan Atlas and Gazetteer (10th ed.). Yarmouth, Maine: DeLorme.
