Tiptoeing Through the Tulips and Around the Triangle: Heading to Lake Michigan

SHOULD I BE DRIVING THE MYSTERY MACHINE?

No trip to Michigan would be complete without a visit to one of the Great Lakes. This weekend, I’m headed to Lake Michigan. While doing a deep dive on the best places to hang out along the lakeshore, I stumbled down the rabbit hole of accounts about the Lake Michigan Triangle—the Bermuda Triangle’s smaller and less popular cousin.  

Lake Michigan covers an estimated 22,400+ square miles. It’s about 300 miles long and about 118 miles across at its widest point. Basically, you could fit almost 22 Rhode Islands into it—or half of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Michigan Triangle is said to stretch from Manitowoc, Wisconsin to Ludington, Michigan and down from both points to Benton Harbor. I’m going to Holland for the Tulip Time Festival.  Guess whose Big Red Lighthouse sits on the beach within that triangle...yep, Holland’s!  

IS IT A LAKE? IS IT A SEA?

Often described as inland, freshwater seas, the Great Lakes are massive enough to create their own weather systems, currents, and a mini-tidal pattern called a seiche. These attributes which can bring about sudden squalls, waterspouts, rogue waves, thick fog banks, and those infamous “lake effect” snowstorms, could all have a hand in the fueling the Triangle legend. Geological instances like stone formations, fault lines, and magnetic aberrations may have also had an effect on the ships, boats, and aircraft that travel the Lake Michigan Triangle.  

Read also: Hawk Island Park: Hidden Gem in South Lansing 

One of the most famous of the Michigan Triangle vanishings: Northwest Airlines Flight 2501. En route from New York to Minneapolis in June 1950, the plane and its 58 passengers and crew disappeared from radar and the sky. It’s been stated that the captain had reported a severe electrical storm and high-velocity winds just before contact was lost. While small debris and human remains were eventually found, the main body of the aircraft has never been recovered, and the cause of the crash remains undetermined.  

NOT JUST AIRCRAFT HAVE DISAPPEARED

Other notable disappearances and tragedies include: 

• The “Christmas Tree Ship,” Rouse Simmons, which vanished in 1912 with a full load of trees and no distress call.  
• The Rosabelle disappeared in October 1921 while transporting lumber. The vessel was later found capsized and drifting near the center of the Triangle, with no signs of the crew, but bearing damage suggesting a collision, though no other vessels were reported in the area at the time. 
• The Thomas Hume vanished on May 21, 1891, during a voyage from Chicago to Muskegon. The ship, along with its crew of seven, disappeared without a trace. The wreckage was finally found in 2006, when the vessel was discovered intact at the bottom of Lake Michigan. The cause of its demise remains unknown. 

THIS WHOLE TRIANGLE THING DOESN’T APPLY TO THE INTERSTATE, DOES IT?

While I don’t think any of these mysteries will be solved over the weekend, I will be taking every precaution while exploring a little part of the Lake Michigan Triangle. Wish me luck as I travel into the unknown.