Welcome to the Maritime History Portal, a collection of articles documenting the ships, waterways, ports, lighthouses, maritime industries, shipwrecks, and people that shaped Michigan's relationship with the Great Lakes.

Michigan's history is inseparable from water. Surrounded by four of the five Great Lakes and possessing more freshwater coastline than any other state, Michigan has long served as a center of navigation, commerce, shipbuilding, fishing, exploration, and maritime innovation.

From Indigenous canoe routes and French exploration to modern ore carriers and international shipping, the Great Lakes remain among Michigan's most important economic and cultural resources.

* Lake Superior * Lake Michigan * Lake Huron * Lake Erie * Lake St. Clair

* Soo Locks * St. Marys River * Willow Run Airport * Great Lakes Ports * Shipping Channels

* SS Edmund Fitzgerald * SS Arthur M. Anderson * Lake Superior Shipwrecks * Great Lakes Maritime Disasters

* Whitefish Point * Whitefish Point Light Station * Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum * Lighthouses of Michigan

* Thomas Farnquist * Gordon Lightfoot * Great Lakes Mariners * Ship Captains and Explorers

* The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald * Great Lakes Folklore * Maritime Memorials * Maritime Museums

* Chippewa County * Sault Ste. Marie * Eastern Lake Superior * Straits of Mackinac * Detroit River Corridor

* More than 6,000 known shipwrecks have occurred on the Great Lakes. * The Soo Locks are the only direct water connection between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes. * Whitefish Point is often called the “Graveyard of the Great Lakes.” * The Edmund Fitzgerald remains one of the most famous shipwrecks in North American history. * Michigan has more lighthouses than any other state.

* History Portal * Infrastructure Portal * Counties Portal * Locations Portal * Military History Portal

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