On the mainland above the Manitou Passage stands a high gravel bluff called Pyramid Point. It is one of the land marks by which the sailors mark their way. A rocky shoal extends from the bluff into the Passage between Sleeping Bear Bay and Good Harbor Bay and is a hazard to navigation. While the Manitou Passage is short cut for vessels traveling up or down Lake Michigan, there are many shoals and rocks to be avoided in these waters. Today accurate charts, buoys, lighthouses, signals and a navigation instruments on a vessel help them avoid these dangers even in the dark or bad weather. In times past, a Captain had little to help him as he navigated the Passage. Unseen rocks and shoals, heavy winds and storms caused many shipwrecks. The remains of a shipwreck can be seen if you stand on top of Pyramid Point with the sun at your back. In the water below lies what is left of the iron boiler of the steamship RISING SUN. The date was October 29, 1917. Coming south through the Manitou Passage, the steamship RISING SUN was going south for the winter carrying farmers and their harvest from Summer Island. She strayed off course in high winds and snow and went aground at night on the Pyramid Point shoal. Passengers and crew struggled ashore through the frigid surf and sought help from farmers living in nearby Port Oneida. The Sleeping Bear Point Coast was alerted and arrived by surf boat the next morning to find only an elderly man still on board. He slept through the ship's grounding! It is said that The RISING SUN's cargo of potatoes, turnips and cedar posts washed on nearby beaches for many months. Today, a Port Oneida great grandmother still remembers the stormy night when she was four years old, that some of the cold and wet survivors of the RISING SUN arrived at her house.

CLICK FOR LARGER PHOTO The RISING SUN as originally called the MINNIE M. Built in 1884 in Detroit, it was 133' in length with a 33' beam and draft of 10'8². Courtesy Leelanau Historical Museum The RISING SUN after wrecking on the Pyramid Point shoal. At the time she wrecked she was owned by the House of David based in Benton Harbor. Two of the passengers stayed in Port Oneida, camping near the wreck to conduct salvage and fish. Courtesy Leelanau Historical Museum ©1999 Thomas Kachadurian

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