Lake Superior navigation began in the mid-1800s and the first lighthouse was built in 1847 just ten miles east of Vermilion at Whitefish Point. Despite the scattered lighthouses that eventually appeared along the south shore to aid navigation, the stretch from Munising to Whitefish Point was dubbed “Graveyard to the Lakes” with 16 major shipwrecks occurring between 1846 and 1875.

This distinction prompted the construction of four life saving stations along the stretch, one of which was located at Vermilion Point and began operation in 1877. Canfield and Allan’s research found that the first record of the Vermilion Station crew responding to a distress call was on June 20, 1877, when the steamer, City of New York, collided with the schooner America. City of New York beached four miles east of the station, and records indicate that all 41 passengers were saved.

“These were the beginnings of many calls for assistance that would be received and answered by the crew at Vermilion Point Life-Saving Station. Many of the wrecks and rescues have been chronicled by shipwreck historians. Many others have been left untold. Monotony and danger, beauty and harshness; such was life on a lonely shore.” (Canfield and Allan, 2001)
Fast forward to 1944 and Vermilion Point Station was reduced in status to an unmanned station, available for use by personnel from Whitefish Point when needed. The station was sold to a private individual and began to fall into disrepair. From the 1950s to the 1970s, the abandoned buildings and adjacent property were frequented by motorcycle gangs and resident “hippies.” Vandals stripped the buildings, and snowmobile and four-wheel vehicle use destroyed the surrounding vegetation. Beach recession on this high-energy shore undermined the building foundations.

The preservation part of this story began in the early 1970s when Evan Noyes, then of Indianapolis and now of Cedarville, Michigan, purchased the Vermilion Point Station and surrounding shoreline and began a program of preservation and partial restoration. By the mid-70s Noyes began a series of transfers of Station buildings and surrounding property to the Nature Conservancy and Lake Superior State University.

Then in the 1990s, by agreement of all concerned parties, Noyes formed Wild Shore Foundation which acquired all of Noyes’ original purchase except for a small portion that he retained. According to Noyes, “my idea was for a small foundation which would function as a single property land trust.
But after 8 or 10 years it had become apparent to me that Vermilion needed an owner with the kind of resources –
people as well as financial – and the continuity that Little Traverse Conservancy could provide.” Noyes’ commitment to the land paid off this past February when Little Traverse Conservancy acquired all of the property he had purchased: the Vermilion Point Station and more than 175 acres of surrounding land with 1.5 miles of Lake Superior beachfront.

In addition to a significant bargain sale by Noyes and Wild Shore Foundation, the acquisition was made possible by a generous grant from the J.A. Woollam Foundation. In 2004, the magic of the property took hold of John Woollam when he made a winter visit by snowmobile. While his original visit was to explore the possibility of funding the purchase of a conservation easement, he returned with an offer to help protect Vermilion permanently as a nature preserve. “Michigan shoreline and wetlands are being developed at an alarming rate,” Woollam said. “It is gratifying for us to partner with Evan Noyes, LTC, and Lake Superior State University to help permanently preserve this precious heritage.”

Funding also came from a significant grant from the North American Wetland Conservation Act Program.

So what is in store for Vermilion now? Since 1985, led by Dr. Tom Allan of Lake Superior State University (LSSU), the Vermilion Point Station and property have been used by researchers from LSSU and Whitefish Point Bird Observatory (WPBO) as well as Michigan Audubon Society. Vermilion Point is one of only a handful of known Great Lakes nesting sites for the federally endangered Piping Plover. Over the years, LSSU and WPBO have traded banding and plover responsibility back and forth. Other research at Vermilion has included beach plant community succession. These and other research efforts are expected to continue into the future.

According to Gregory Zimmerman, chair of LSSU’s Biology Department, “Vermilion has been a great place for our students to get hands-on experience in avian ecology. There’s no place else quite like Vermilion and we’re fortunate to be able to offer this unique experience to our students.”

The Conservancy is enormously grateful to Evan Noyes, Wild Shore Foundation, and once again to the J.A. Woollam Foundation for making an incredible conservation project possible. With the help of Wild Shore Foundation, Lake Superior State University and the Michigan Audubon Society, LTC will be working to maintain and perhaps even enhance the research and resource protection work that has been going on along this wild and beautiful stretch of Lake Superior’s shoreline.

“Vermilion is a magical, beautiful place and it is a great honor for the Little Traverse Conservancy to take over for Evan Noyes who has done such a magnificent job of protecting and maintaining Vermilion,” said Conservancy Executive Director Tom Bailey. “It is especially fitting that what was once a life-saving station for mariners in a wild and untamed region is now being used for life-saving ecological research as development and human activity have more and more impact on the wild.”
More scenic photos of the Vermilion Point property. (photo credit above left: Conservancy staff; above right: Todd Parker)