The Lake Michigan Triangle has earned a bizarre reputation due to the numerous missing ships reported. It was even dubbed the Bermuda Triangle of the Great Lakes.
Paranormal Activities in the Lake Michigan Triangle
Most people are familiar with the Bermuda Triangle, the enigmatic location in the Atlantic Ocean where numerous aircraft and ships have disappeared into the murky, deep waters. Moreover, many people need to be made aware that Michigan has a similarly peculiar location known as the Lake Michigan Triangle.
The region between Ludington, Michigan, Benton Harbor, Michigan, and Manitowoc, Wisconsin, is commonly called the Lake Michigan Triangle. Strange phenomena have happened in this area of Lake Michigan on several occasions throughout hundreds of years, most of which are beyond scientific explanation.
With a few more recent events to take into account, the great bulk of spooky incidents that individuals mention from the Lake Michigan Triangle happened between 1850 and 1950. However, the first instance that has been documented was in 1679.
The Great Lakes were essential to the fur trade route in the second part of the 17th century. The powerful commerce ship Le Griffon set out on her inaugural journey in 1679. In an attempt to increase the fur trade to China and Japan, the ship planned to cruise the Great Lakes to find the fastest northwest path to the Far East.
The ship, however, never managed to cross the frigid waters of Lake Michigan. The ship vanished from sight within the boundaries of the Lake Michigan Triangle. Although it is often believed that it fell to the lake's bottom, no remnants of the wreck, cargo, or crew were ever found.
On May 21, 1891, the ship Thomas Hume, with seven sailors, dropped a shipment of lumber off in Chicago. Despite the dark horizon, they were traveling back to Muskegon to Hackey-Hume Lumber Mill, while the Rouse-Simmons crew decided to return to Chicago and wait for calmer waters. Thomas Hume never arrived in Muskegon.
In 1912, the fortunate old vessel Rouse-Simmons was transporting Christmas Trees from Thompson, Michigan, to Chicago when it went missing. They sailed in clear conditions, which left many baffled about how it went missing.
In 2006, Thomas Hume was discovered in near-perfect condition at the bottom of the lake. Rouse-Simmons was found sunken 165 feet with no clue as to how it ended up there. Both shipwrecks were found within a specific triangle -- west to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, east to Ludington, Michigan, and south to Benton Harbor, Michigan. The list goes on.
In 1950, Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2501 carried 55 passengers and three crew members from New York to Minneapolis, Minnesota. The pilot informed air traffic control that the aircraft had experienced unanticipated turbulence and would be descending to a cruising altitude while it was over the lake.
Not long after the transmission was transmitted, the aircraft vanished entirely off the radar. The horrible accident claimed the lives of every passenger and member of the crew. The reason behind the plane's downfall remained a mystery to all, and the fact that the debris was never found further complicated matters.
An even more dubious circumstance occurred near the Lake Michigan Triangle in 1978. While enjoying some cross-country skiing in the late winter along Lake Michigan's shimmering shoreline, a college student from Michigan appeared to vanish into the lake's waves.
It was a solo excursion, so no friends or family members could explain what happened. The only sign of his disappearance was a few footprints in the snow near the water's edge.
It was assumed that he had frozen or drowned in the lake. However, the student was found alive and well more than a year later - and over 700 miles away. He had no memory of the event when asked about what happened that day or why he was in that location. He could not explain what happened near the powerful Great Lakes Triangle.
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Lake Michigan Triangle Mystery Remains Unsolved
The paranormal events in the Lake Michigan Triangle involve shipwrecks, plane crashes, and UFO sightings, and they are connected due to one thing -- lack of explanation.
In an attempt to locate shipwrecks, archaeology professor Mark Holley and colleague Brian Abbott conducted a sonar search of the Lake Michigan Triangle in 2007. They found a row of stones set in a configuration resembling Stonehenge in around 40 feet of water. When they dispatched divers to take pictures of the region, they discovered what appears to be a prehistoric Mastodon carving next to the row of stones, which dates back more than 12,000 years. The precise location is still unknown, and the site has not been verified. Similar to Stonehenge, little is known about the purpose of the thoughtfully placed underwater stones or who put them there.
The many strange events surrounding this triangle of Lake Michigan have no clear connection, though one could certainly construct a case to account for each one. Still, as the coincidences increase and the shadows get closer, this story's uncanny quality cannot be denied.
"We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far," H.P. Lovecraft, an American writer of weird, science, fantasy, and horror fiction, once wrote.
Until now, experts still don't have answers about those unexplainable stuff.
"A lot of interesting stories have come out of that region of Lake Michigan," Wisconsin Maritime Museum submarine curator Karen Duvalle said. "No one knows why."
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