Sleeping Bear Point sits below the shoulder of the Sleeping Bear Dunes. It is a windswept piece of land jutting into the Manitou Passage with views west toward Wisconsin, north towards Cathead Point, and south towards Pt. Betsie. Schooners piled high with lumber, potatoes, fruit, and other goods as well as steamships made their way past this point southbound for Chicago, or northbound with passengers and finished goods. The Manitou Passage represented for seaman an opportunity to save time and replenish supplies, but it also had a darker side in which numerous schooners and steamers were caught in storms and fog and were run aground or sunk. The tremendous traffic through the Passage required a life-saving service to aid ships and their crews. In 1901, Congress appropriated the money to build a Life-Saving Station at Sleeping Bear Point. By 1931, moving sand dunes and shoreline erosion forced the station to move to its current location near Glen Haven. Today, the Sleeping Bear Point Coast Guard Station is owned and operated by Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The buildings have been restored to their pre-1931 appearance and are open to visitors.

CLICK FOR LARGER PHOTO The Coast Guard station shortly after being moved to Glen Haven ©1999 Thomas Kachadurian

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