Straits of Mackinac

Overhead view of the Straits of Mackinac linking Lakes Michigan (left) and Huron (right)

The Straits of Mackinac (/ˈmækɪnɔː/ MAK-in-aw) is a series of narrow waterways in the U.S. state of Michigan, between Michigan's Lower and Upper Peninsulas. The main strait flows under the Mackinac Bridge and connects two of the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. The main strait is five miles (8.0 km) wide and 20 fathoms (120 ft; 37 m) deep.[1] Hydrologically, the two connected lakes can be considered one, which is called Lake Michigan–Huron. Historically, the region around the Straits was known by the native Odawa people as Michilimackinac. The Straits of Mackinac is "whipsawed by currents unlike anywhere else in the Great Lakes."[2]

History

The Straits of Mackinac is a major shipping lane, providing passage for raw materials and finished goods and connecting, for instance, the iron mines of Minnesota to the steel mills of Gary, Indiana. Before the railroads reached Chicago from the east, most immigrants arrived in the Midwest and Great Plains by ships on the Great Lakes. The straits is five miles (8 km) wide at its narrowest point, where it is spanned by the Mackinac Bridge. Before the bridge was built, car ferries transported vehicles across the straits. Today passenger-only ferries carry people to Mackinac Island, which does not permit cars. Visitors can take their vehicles on a car ferry to Bois Blanc Island.

Islands in the Straits of Mackinac include the two populated islands, Bois Blanc and Mackinac, and two that are uninhabited: Round and St. Helena islands. At 11 miles (18 km) in length, Bois Blanc is the largest island in the straits.

Satellite photograph of icebreaker paths through the ice in the straits. The Mackinac Bridge is the vertical line in the center, connecting the landmass of the Upper Peninsula above to lower Michigan below. The icebreaker paths run right-to-left, connecting the open water of Lake Michigan with the open water of Lake Huron between Mackinac Island and Round Island.
The Straits of Mackinac, spanned by the Mackinac Bridge, seen from the southern shore

The straits are shallow and narrow enough to freeze over in the winter. Navigation is ensured for year-round shipping to the Lower Great Lakes by the use of icebreakers.

The straits were an important Native American and fur trade route. Located on the southern side of the straits is the town of Mackinaw City, the site of Fort Michilimackinac, a reconstructed French fort founded in 1715, and on the northern side is St. Ignace, site of a French Catholic mission to the Indians, founded in 1671. The eastern end of the straits was controlled by Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island, a British colonial and early American military base and fur trade center, founded in 1781.

Today

The straits are patrolled by a detachment of the United States Coast Guard based at Graham Point, St. Ignace. A shipping channel through the winter ice is maintained by the Coast Guard's Great Lakes icebreaker, USCGC Mackinaw, based in Cheboygan near the eastern edge of the Straits. This vessel went into service during the 2005/06 ice season.

Most of the Straits have been set aside by the state of Michigan as the Straits of Mackinac Shipwreck Preserve, a riparian public space dedicated to those personnel who were lost aboard the boats and ships that sank in these dangerous shipping lanes.

Lighthouses in the Straits of Mackinac include:

2008 panorama of the Straits from Mackinac Island

Enbridge pipeline

West of the iconic Mackinac Bridge is Enbridge's pipeline, called Enbridge Line 5, which was built in 1953 as an extension of the one thousand one hundred and fifty miles (1,850 km) Interprovincial Pipe Line Company line bringing oil from the Alberta oil sands to Lake Superior.[3] The 1953 pipeline enters the Straits of Mackinac water on the north shore at St. Ignace, Michigan and lies along the bottom of the Straits which is nearly two hundred and fifty feet (76 m) in places.[2] By 2013 Enbridge had increased the "maximum capacity on the lines to 540,000 barrels per day."[2] In selling the idea of the pipeline to residents living near the Straits, the pipeline developers claimed, it was "essential to the defense of the United States and the whole North American continent".[2] Mackinac pipes were specifically engineered to withstand the Straits’ brutal underwater environment. Even some of the company’s staunchest critics concede the twin lines, old as they may be, remain an engineering marvel."[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ " The current then divides into several navigable channels or lesser Straits, separated by Bois Blanc, Round, and Mackinac Islands, hence the plural Straits of Mackinac. Michigan and Huron: One Lake or Two?" Infoplease.com.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Dan Egan (January 18, 2017), Dangerous Straits, A Journal Sentinel Special Report, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, retrieved February 11, 2017
  3. ↑ Flesher, John (March 3, 2014). "Submerged Enbridge Pipeline Under Michigan's Straits of Mackinac Raises Spill Fears". The Huffington Post. Associated Press. Retrieved February 11, 2017.

Coordinates: 45°48′50″N 84°45′00″W / 45.81389°N 84.75000°W / 45.81389; -84.75000

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