Mysterious Lake Michigan: The Other Bermuda Triangle?

From dancing lights above to a cryptic, underwater “Stonehenge” below, Lake Michigan is steeped in aquatic oddities—enough to rival even those of the storied Bermuda Triangle.

But what’s the story behind the aptly-dubbed “Michigan Triangle,” the Great Lakes’ claim to paranormal fame? Is it all smoke and mirrors or, like the lake itself, something with a bit more depth? Read on as we explore some of the unique on-the-water phenomenon that make Lake Michigan a true mystery—and a great getaway, too.

Mysterious monoliths

On land, the mystique of Stonehenge is hard to overstate—below the surface, it’s downright perplexing.

Big, upstanding stones arranged in a circle look up at the surface of Grand Traverse Bay—from their depths, they are believed to have stood through the last Ice Age and the modernization of Michigan’s shores. (The Ice Age clue comes way of carvings of the prehistoric mastodon, an elephant-like animal who lived more than 10,000 years ago.) Though the water makes these mysterious monoliths less tip-top than their UK counterparts, they are still surprisingly well-preserved—as far as anyone can tell, at least! The stones were first discovered in 2007 by a researcher from Northwestern Michigan University, but there has yet to be extensive research to further than initial find. Other unique features have been found in the lake, though: cars, boats, a Civil War pier and even another stone circle over at Beaver Island.

Some believe that local people arranged the stones here when the lake was nothing but a dry bed, all those years ago. And the theory makes sense—local Native American lore talks about meeting around stone calendars, for example—but when it comes to determining the origins of those rocks, bizarre activity in the skies above Lake Michigan might lead some to venture a guess that’s truly out of this world…

Is that a bird… a plane…

Incidentally, Michigan is one of the country’s top spots for UFO sightings—and Lake Michigan alone has seen its fair share of them, or so some say.

Earlier this year, for example, Milwaukee area residents were surprised to see a bevy of glowing, white lights dart around the early morning sky. Some guessed fireworks, others drones, aliens, or, ultimately, seagulls—lit from the city lights below. But the display was too unusual—almost ethereal in nature—for people to drop their extraterrestrial assumptions entirely!

While this was a recent “sighting,” of course, it was far from the first. In Manitowoc, for example, there has long been a regional fixation on space—and the things that fall down from it—since a piece of the ship Sputnik IV fell onto the lakeshore town in 1962, leaving a peculiar green glow in its wake. Today, the town’s annual “Sputnikfest” celebrates the town’s role in space-age tradition, as well as an interest in the extraterrestrial… so it’s perhaps not surprising that UFOs have also been reported flying over town for the last several decades, or that the alleged western point of the Lake Michigan Triangle falls just about exactly at Manitowoc’s shore.

Where did they go?

A classic feature of the Bermuda Triangle is unexplained disappearances—so it follows that the Michigan Triangle has a few of those, too.

For example: Just before Halloween of 1921, the Rosabelle was found, awash with water and apparently destroyed in a collision… but the crew, nor a colliding ship, were never found.

Then in 1937, the freighter O.M. McFarland lost its captain—just like that. Captain George Donner had finished guiding his ship through the icy Mackinac Straits when he went to his cabin to rest, asking the crew to wake him up when they were nearly at their destination. He closed the door, too… but when his crew went to go get him, he was nowhere in sight.

Ships have altogether disappeared, too, such as the Thomas Hume schooner in 1891. It was a much-talked-about event when the ship vanishes—in seemingly good weather—after leaving from Chicago’s shores. Of course, this question of the Triangle might have a more clear-cut answer—with so many shipwrecks crowding the Great Lakes, finding a specific vessel in the depths can be like searching for a needle in a haystack. A ship can carry the “disappeared” title for decades, before ultimately being found much later… like the Hume eventually was, in 2006.

A lake of all trades

What makes the Michigan Triangle so unique? Unlike, say, the Bermuda Triangle, a stretch of ocean largely untouched and removed from the everyday consciousness, Lake Michigan sits squarely among one of the country’s most beloved destinations. Its peculiarities stand out all the more against its familiar backdrop of boating, swimming and sightseeing fun—intriguing locals and visitors alike with the question, could something so bizarre really happen here?

Many of these Michiganian mysteries are exciting fodder for visitors—but if exploring the storied Triangle isn’t quite your thing, you can steer clear of it, too. Its supposed shape stretches from Manitowoc to Ludington to Benton Harbor in the south, so your vacation can be as tame (or spooky) as you want.

When you’re not exploring the area’s unique culture and paranormalities, you can indulge in the simplest, sweetest pastime Lake Michigan has to offer: enjoying the water! A few of our favorite spots for wakeboarding or waterskiing (to name a few fun sports) include the Mackinac Straits, where island fun awaits, and the lake’s southern half, where you can jump from boarding against the Chicago skyline to cruising past the wild, dreamy dunes of Northern Indiana.

For those intrepid adventurers who can’t choose between water sports and quests for the unknown, Lake Michigan’s your spot. See you there this summer on your Vortex!