Whitefish Point sticks out into Lake Superior in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The town of Shelldrake, named after a duck common in the area, is a ghost town at the mouth of the Shelldrake River on Whitefish Point. By the late 1890s, Shelldrake had a sawmill, houses for workers that were equipped with bathrooms, a hospital, a school house, a post office, and an icehouse that could store enough meat to feed a population of 1,000 through the winter months.
There are stories of the area being haunted by an old sea captain who stands on the dock near Shelldrake. He has a pipe and a cape, and he is usually seen from the lake. As boats approach the shore, he fades away and disappears. The tugboat Grace, which was towing a barge in October of 1879 through Whitefish Bay was headed for Goulais Bay in Canada. During a storm in the early morning, the tugboat broke down and drifted onto a sand bar about 200 feet offshore from Shelldrake. The tug filled with water and broke to pieces. The crew made it to shore, and after climbing the bank to safety the captain proclaimed, “Thank God, we are all safe.” and then suddenly dropped dead of a heart attack. This may be the captain’s ghost that has been seen on the docks.
Please note that Shelldrake is privately owned and not accessible to the public.
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