Vermilion Point
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| Location | Whitefish Township, Chippewa County, Michigan, USA |
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| Coords | 46°45′47″N 85°08′56″W / 46.76306°N 85.14889°WCoordinates: 46°45′47″N 85°08′56″W / 46.76306°N 85.14889°W |
| Organization | Little Traverse Nature Conservancy |
| Historic use | Vermilion Lifesaving Station 1877 - 1944 |
| Modern use | Vermilion Point Nature Conservancy |
| Website | www.landtrust.org |
Vermilion Point is a remote, undeveloped shore in Chippewa County, Michigan, United States. Located 9.75 miles (15.69 km) west of Whitefish Point, Michigan, this historic spot lies on a stretch of Lake Superior’s southeast coast known as the "Graveyard of the Great Lakes" or the "Shipwreck Coast". The servicemen of Vermilion Lifesaving Station performed daring rescues of shipwrecks from 1877 until 1944 when it was closed after modern navigational technology made this service obsolete.
Vermilion Point was a popular stopover for Native Americans, early travelers, and explorers. Early settlers used its bogs and marshes to grow cranberries that were shipped to Chicago, Illinois, and Duluth, Minnesota. Today it is protected as a nature preserve for study of avian ecology and research of the piping plover and beach plant community succession.
Its sand and pebble beach is intermingled with agates that are churned ashore during storms. Pounding surf and buffeting winds keep the low barrier dune paralleling the beach sparsely vegetated. Water filled swales, bogs, and marshes occupy the land behind the barrier dune.
Vermilion Point no longer exists as a peninsula. Sand Creek flowing out of the surrounding wetlands into Lake Superior is the only remaining geographical landmark for Vermilion The original forest cover was lumbered off and is now replaced with typical northern hardwoods and conifers.
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