Fog in Grand Marais

Throughout the day on Sunday, there was fog in Cook County.  I was in Grand Marais doing my Sunday radio shows, and would sometimes see the hills behind the station, and other times be able to see no further than the other side of Highway 61.

At the conclusion of my Classic Country show, I decided to take a walk out toward the main Grand Marais Lighthouse.  I could see the path in front of me, but not much else.   After a short walk, I came to the site of the old Grand Marais Fire Tower, walked around the footings, and pressed on towards the bright flash of light in the fog.

When I was out on the breakwater, I could see the flash of the main lighthouse, plus the other two navigation lights on different parts of the harbor.  The only thing I could see from the town of Grand Marais was a row of blurry lights.  There was also the dim outline of a sailboat anchored nearby.

The fog can be quite beautiful from the shore, but rather dangerous when you are out in Lake Superior.  In 1933, a ship called the George M. Cox was carrying passengers to Port Arthur (now part of Thunder Bay, ON), and the First Mate ignored the Captain's orders to slow down and maintain the current course in the fog.  By the time the Captain found out what had happened, the ship was too close to the Rock of Ages Lighthouse off of Isle Royale.

The Lighthouse Keeper saw the top of the ship from the vantage point of the lantern room high above the fog, and ordered the alarm sounded.  Unfortunately, the Captain, not knowing the exact position of the ship, ordered a turn to the north, right into the Rock of Ages Reef, which had already claimed both the Cumberland, and the Chisolm.

Luckily, no one was killed in the impact, although there were injuries with some of the crew.  The most injured people, and George M. Cox himself were taken to Port Arthur by a smaller ship, but everyone else had to spend the night in the lighthouse.

The Rock of Ages Lighthouse is over 100 feet tall, and can be seen from Minnesota on a clear day, 22 miles away.  However, it was not suited to having over 100 visitors for the night.  People would switch off being inside, and the Keeper"s wife spent the whole night making coffee to warm the people outside.

The next day, the Coast Guard came along and took the survivors onto Isle Royale.  Eventually, the George M. Cox sank into Lake Superior, and is now a popular diving target.  It joined the ranks of over 500 other ships that have wrecked on Lake Superior over the years.

I made it to the lighthouse, rested a minute, and then turned back around.  On the way back, I really noticed the sounds coming out of the fog.  The waves roared in from Superior, and the water gurgled as it passed over the rocks closer to the breakwater.  A beaver was alarmed, and slapped his tail on the water as he dove into the depths.

One sound I missed was the old fog signal that was still working when I first moved to Cook County.  It would sound intermittently day and night until the fog went away.  When the Coast Guard replaced the old Fresnel Lens with an airport beacon, they took out the old fog signal as well.  Now a marine radio is needed to sound the signal.

I made it back to my car, took some pictures of the fog, and drove toward the Gunflint Trail.  The fog thinned as I drove up the hill out of Grand Marais, but remained patchy all the way back to Gunflint Lake.