Land, Water & History: Exploring Our Geoheritage

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The first time I saw Lake Superior, I had no words. I couldn’t describe the majesty of this tremendous body of fresh water.

Growing up on the East Coast of Canada, I didn’t think much could rival the mighty Atlantic Ocean. I discovered how wrong I was when I moved to Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula seven years ago to study geoscience education at Michigan Technological University in Houghton. Since then, my love for the Lake and my curiosity about the region have grown.

In recent years, I’ve developed interpretive materials and led geotours to connect people to the fascinating ancient geology often overlooked in the present glory of Lake Superior. Most participants are versed in the icy formation of the Lake, sculpted and shaped by glaciers. But lifelong resident or first-time visitor, almost all are surprised to learn that the basin holding the water is more than 1 billion years old.

The Lake is about 10,000 years old, which is when people began inhabiting its shores. Linking people to land and water has become my passion. How can we preserve and celebrate our geological, marine and human history?

Many examples, of course, already exist above and below water.

Our shared public lands feature national, state, provincial and city parks, an international biosphere reserve and four underwater preserves. Non-profit groups, such as The Nature Conservancy and land trusts, own or manage large tracts.

Further support is growing to conserve and promote natural and human heritage, movements motivated by two main concepts: geoheritage and marine conservation. It’s an exciting conversation about our shared values for the land, the water and our regional heritage.

Geoheritage

Have you ever stood barefoot on massive rocks beside Lake Superior and felt the warmth of the black basalt on a hot July day? Perhaps you’ve kayaked beneath towering sandstone cliffs or have family working the region’s many mines.

The geological history of this land sets the stage for life and ecology as we know it today. The idea of “geoheritage” is to connect people to that history by pointing out significant geologic features and highlighting the way we use and interact with the landscape.

A relatively established concept worldwide, geoheritage is nascent in the United States and Canada. Here in the Keweenaw, initiatives are flourishing through community partnerships.

“Lake Superior folks love the outdoors, but they are isolated from geological information about their place. We really want to change that,” says Bill Rose, retired Michigan Tech professor of volcanology who developed and leads Keweenaw Geotours.

Our Lake, which acts like an ocean in the middle of the continent, was born of two vastly different periods in Earth’s history. A billion or so years ago, an ancient rift zone poured out massive lava flows and nearly split the continent. More recent glaciation carved out the lakes, waterfalls and beaches we enjoy.

“Lake Superior has an absolutely rich geologic heritage,” Bill says. “The geology isn’t interpreted much, so we have an opening.” Tapping that opportunity has begun with interpretive signage throughout the peninsula, books, videos, lectures and events.

As lead guide and facilities supervisor at the Quincy Mine Hoist Association in Hancock, Tom Wright knows about visitors and is crafting mine tours and events around geoheritage. “The educational and scientific aspects of geoheritage give it a vital level of depth that set it apart from what I consider the typical tourist draw, such as scenery and landscapes, or outdoors activities alone.”

Evan McDonald, executive director of the Keweenaw Land Trust, sees other openings. “Helping people connect with and understand the natural world is more important than ever, as fostering appreciation will ultimately support appropriate protection and stewardship of our shared natural resources.”

While the interest in geoheritage is growing in the Keweenaw, promotion of the concept is also spreading around the Lake.

In 2015, Seth Stein, Northwestern University, and Carol Stein, University of Illinois at Chicago, prepared an article for the National Park Service promoting use of Lake-region parks to explain the Midcontinent Rift.

Even these seasoned earth science experts and frequent Lake visitors overlooked the region’s geological interest until they were working on project involving Jacobsville sandstone, rocks found among the Apostle Islands and in the Keweenaw running to Munising. Seth remembers it suddenly struck them: “We’ve paddled through that stuff many times and sat on it!”

It made the couple think more about the unique geology of their favorite vacation spots.

“Why does the North Shore of Minnesota look so different from other places in the Midwest? And why do the rocks in Minnesota, the Keweenaw and the Apostles look the same?” Seth poses. Volcanic action from that rift, which tried and failed to make an ocean so long ago, is the answer. Such questions, and the geological forces that spur them, could generate spectacular interest and education, Seth says.

EarthCaches are another initiative supporting geoheritage, where people visit a place using GPS coordinates and educational notes, similar to geocaching, but with a geologic feature as the treasure. Lake Superior caches can be found on geocaching websites.

The concept of geoheritage has gotten a boost via the Keweenaw National Historical Park and its 21 heritage sites. Those sites, plus the park’s Calumet visitor center, total about 270,000 visits each year, notes Scott See, executive director for the park’s advisory commission. Currently surveys show most Keweenaw visitors come for family visits or the region’s natural beauty, but there may be a day when history draws them, just as it does to the Civil War battlefields in the East.

The region even has Civil War ties, Scott points out. “The copper from the Keweenaw supplied the Union troops during the Civil War, (as copper wire) it drove the electrification of America. It has a very important place in our nation’s development.”

The Keweenaw copper that ignited the first major U.S. mining boom in the 1840s resulted from the same massive tectonic rift that formed the Lake’s basin.

Along with national importance, there is potential for international recognition of the Keweenaw’s geoheritage. Discussion has begun about community interest in application for a UNESCO Global Geopark designation.

Like the national historical park, a geopark is not a specific space. It unifies significant sites of exemplary geological features and related cultural history, such as museums, heritage sites, old quarries or mines and scenic areas.

There are 120 geoparks worldwide, two in Canada, none in the United States.

Gail Bremner, executive director of Stonehammer Geopark in New Brunswick, recalls initial hesitation in their local communities about designation. “People naturally think of gated access points when they hear the word ‘park.’ It was really important for us from the beginning to distinguish the difference between what a geopark is from federally and provincially designated parks. Once people understood that, support from the community grew.”

Isle Royale National Park holds a different UNESCO designation as an international biosphere reserve. Liz Valencia, the park’s chief of interpretation and cultural resources, terms the 1980 designation a chance to tie into the international program. “It’s definitely an honor,” she says.

Geopark designation does not bring monetary support or impose restrictions, but can open doors for cooperative projects locally, nationally and internationally via the Global Geopark network. If communities seek and receive the designation, they agree to develop education, conservation and sustainable economic opportunities as part of the program.

“What it would do,” says Scott,” is give visibility to the geoheritage in this area.”

Marine Conservation

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Land, Water & History: Exploring Our Geoheritage

Gary McGuffin

Land, Water & History: Exploring Our Geoheritage

Joanie McGuffin takes a break near the Shaganash Island Lighthouse within the Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area.

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Land, Water & History: Exploring Our Geoheritage

Land, Water & History: Exploring Our Geoheritage

About a 10,850-square-kilometre slice (almost 4,200 square miles) of Lake Superior forms the Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area in Ontario.

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Land, Water & History: Exploring Our Geoheritage

Parks Canada / Colin Crowell

Land, Water & History: Exploring Our Geoheritage

Promotion of tourism within the Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area along the Ontario shore is considered part of the sustainable mission of the designation. On the Casque Isles Hiking Trail, just a short hike west of Schreiber Beach, a visitor takes a break in a Muskoka chair (Adirondacks in the United States). The “Red Chair Experience” has blossomed at national parks throughout Canada. Chairs can be found through GPS.

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Land, Water & History: Exploring Our Geoheritage

Parks Canada / Dale Wilson

Land, Water & History: Exploring Our Geoheritage

Some 600 islands are within the NMCA, including Porphyry with its lighthouse station. There are as many as 50 shipwrecks within the area.

National and provincial parks, even on an island, concentrate more on land than water, but designations have surfaced over the past couple decades to honor hydrological heritage.

Four underwater preserves on the Lake in Michigan acknowledge human history sadly sunk beneath the waves, protecting shipwrecks as underwater “museums” revealing maritime history for divers (see side story).

The Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve on Barker’s Island in Superior is one of the newest local designations. The NERR focuses on the St. Louis River estuary, doing research and education partnering with Wisconsin Sea Grant, the University of Wisconsin-Superior and others.

A still broader scope is offered through the concept of marine conservation, which considers preservation of living ecosystems along with cultural facets of oceans and lakes.

Canada and the United States both have official designations with respect to marine heritage: National Marine Conservation Areas (NMCA), managed by Parks Canada, and National Marine Sanctuaries (NMS), managed by NOAA. Both are being floated as potentials within the Lake basin and both, as with geoheritage, are based on partnerships.

“The real strength lies in working together, not in isolation,” says Joanie McGuffin, author/adventurer from Batchawana Bay, Ontario, who with her husband, Gary, founded a new conservancy. “We started the Lake Superior Watershed Conservancy with the vision of protecting the basin and watershed as a whole, and to connect communities through a shared celebration of the outdoors. The conservancy has partnered with numerous groups over the past years to promote the long-term sustainable health of the coast and opportunities for tourism, but also to encourage healthy lifestyles through outdoor recreation.”

The McGuffins have been key players in the decade-long planning of the Lake Superior NMCA that spans from Silver Islet to east of Terrace Bay, down to the Canada-U.S. border in the Lake. Once established, it will include the lake bed, some shoreline and more than 600 islands. The NMCA, headquartered in Nipigon, promotes sustainable use within the designated area, allowing, for example, commercial fishing and ecotourism, but not extractive endeavors such as mining.

Robin Lessard, a field unit superintendent for Parks Canada, emphasizes the importance of partners in the process, working with local cities and towns, business stakeholders and Indigenous communities for common benefit as a world-class tourism destination. “As the northern boundary of the marine conservation area spans over 140 kilometres,” he notes, “the uniqueness of communities plays a huge role in the success of the overall visitor experience program and the significant stories told that reflect very different backgrounds and values.”

On the U.S. side of the Lake, marine conservation also has been a focus.

The idea for a marine sanctuary in Wisconsin is in the very earliest stages of being explored. The option for such a designation came about because NOAA, for the first time in 20 years, has invited public nominations.

“The process is now driven by communities themselves to create nominations for new national marine sanctuaries,” says Ellen Brody, Great Lakes regional coordinator. Nominations must describe the significance of the marine resources, opportunities for partnerships, for research and education, and indicate strong community support.

Actual designation is a separate process creating a law through Congress and may take years, NOAA points out.

Currently only 1 of 13 NMSs is established on the Great Lakes – the Thunder Bay NMS on Lake Huron in Alpena, Michigan. A second site on Lake Michigan in Wisconsin waters is in the designation process.

On Lake Superior, the concept is advancing, but not without hesitancy over potential restrictions on diving over shipwrecks or on recreational and commercial fishing.

Such concerns are familiar to Chuck Wiesen, 40-year Alpena resident and president of the Friends of Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary Board. Since designation there 20 years ago, he notes increased visits and establishment of the Thunder Bay NMS visitor and research center. “All of a sudden your area will be a destination. It won’t be long, as the process moves ahead, before you begin to hear ‘my/our sanctuary’ rather than ‘their sanctuary.’ Designation requires a whole community process of introspection, communication, research, promotion and give and take.”

Community conversation may be the most important contribution of these initiatives, whether or not communities choose to seek outside specific designations.

Talking together can determine our shared values for the land and water and can enrich our sense of place and of ourselves within the Big Lake basin we call home.

What’s in a Name?

Parks

Lake Superior hosts five U.S. national parks (Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Wisconsin; Grand Portage National Monument, Minnesota; and Isle Royale National Park, Keweenaw National Historical Park and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, all in Michigan) and one Canadian national park (Pukaskwa National Park) plus dozens of state, provincial and municipal parks. Parks have the most restricted use, though recreation such as hunting, fishing, hiking and skiing may be allowed.

National Marine Conservation Area

Created by the Canadian Parliament in 2002, four areas are now considered as NMCAs. Lake Superior NMCA operates under a 2016 interim plan. Within the NMCA, operations such as mining are forbidden, but sustainable use, such as fishing and tourism, are encouraged and promoted. The local headquarters is in Nipigon, Ontario.

National Marine Sanctuary

NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) oversees 13 designated sanctuaries. Under the designation, there is protective management of “marine resources,” which can cover everything from living plants and animals to water currents to cultural resources.

Underwater Preserves

Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality oversees 13 preserves, four in our Lake (Keweenaw, Marquette County, Alger and Whitefish Point). Divers can visit shipwrecks in preserves, but artifact removal is illegal.

National Estuarine Research Reserve

Among 28 U.S. nationally designated NERR sites, only two – on Lake Superior and on Lake Erie – cover freshwater estuaries. The NOAA designation does not limit uses, but does provide money for education and research. Lake Superior NERR operates on Barker’s Island in Wisconsin.

International Biosphere Reserves

UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) counts 669 biosphere reserves in 120 countries. Isle Royale was designated in 1980. Biospheres, nominated by national governments, combine terrestrial, marine and coastal ecosystems and remain under state and national control.

Global Geoparks

The UNESCO program started in 2004 and has geoparks in 33 countries. Designation of these exemplary geosites requires prior protection under tribal, federal, state or other entity – UNESCO does not have legal standing over these areas.

Erika Vye is a geologist and geoheritage specialist living contentedly in Copper Harbor, Michigan.