Lake Michigan Triangle, The: Mysterious Disappearances and Haunting Tales

INTRODUCTION

THE LAKE MICHIGAN TRIANGLE

The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don’t know.

—Sherman Alexie, author

Most people have heard of the Bermuda Triangle, the mysterious section of the Atlantic Ocean responsible for the unexplained disappearances of numerous ships and planes. It was first given its ominous name in a 1964 Argosy magazine article by Vincent Gaddis; it was later wildly popularized in a 1974 book by Charles Berlitz. What isn’t as widely known is that there are dozens of such triangle areas around the world—many are much deadlier than their Atlantic counterpart. In fact, one of the deadliest lies in our own backyard: the Lake Michigan Triangle.

Although the origins of the name aren’t clear, aviator Jay Gourley’s 1977 book, The Great Lakes Triangle, began to weave together the tragic tales of strange shipwrecks, disappearances and plane crashes across the Great Lakes region. Later authors honed in on a rash of mysteries centered in Lake Michigan and described the Lake Michigan Triangle as an area bounded by Manitowoc, Wisconsin, to Ludington, Michigan, and down to Benton Harbor, Michigan. However, those boundaries only capture a small portion of the strange and unsettling happenings that span Lake Michigan’s 22,404 square miles. Although the concept of a neat triangle aids the reader in clearly envisioning a specific area, tragedies aren’t so easily confined to rigid geometric lines. For that reason, this book will contain some oddities and incidents that fall around the immediate shores of the lake and aren’t just confined to its watery boundaries.

ABOUT THE LAKE

The Great Lakes are relative youngsters in geological history. They were formed about fourteen thousand years ago as retreating glaciers scraped along the land and created basins that filled with meltwater, but millions of years before the glaciers arrived, the area was actually an ancient Silurian tropical sea. Unequal erosion from that sea formed a prominent ridge of bedrock, known as the Niagara Escarpment, that partially encircles Lake Michigan. It begins in northern Illinois near the lake’s western edge, hugs its northern border and stretches over Lake Huron east to New York, where its famous namesake waterfalls thrill spectators. Lake Michigan is considered the second-largest of the five Great Lakes by volume and the third-largest by surface area. You might be surprised, however, to learn that Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are really just one giant lake, connected hydrologically by the five-mile-wide Straits of Mackinac. Water flows between them, and they maintain the same water level. Viewed together, Michigan-Huron is the largest freshwater lake by surface area in the world. And although science tells us they’re two lobes of one singular massive lake, legally and historically they’ve always been treated as separate entities.

But what makes Lake Michigan so deadly? More than one thousand drownings have occurred in the Great Lakes just since 2010, and more than half of those have been in Lake Michigan alone. Some of the factors are due to the elongated shape and position of the lake. Its shores are parallel and unobstructed, which contributes to the formation of dangerous currents, such as riptide and longshore tides, and the north–south orientation combines with normal wind patterns to churn waves to great heights. Rip currents and strong undertows make swimming extremely dangerous, and the massive and unpredictable waves can sweep pedestrians off piers or drag them from shorelines. It’s those same waves that are blamed for many of the shipwrecks, either swamping the vessels or smashing them to bits on the rocky shoals that line the coast. And the water is cold! Winter water temperatures typically hover just above freezing, and the summer average is only about sixty-two degrees Fahrenheit, although it can get into the low seventies if conditions are just right in July. Hypothermia can occur in any water temperature below seventy degrees Fahrenheit (depending on length of exposure), so that means that most months of the year, the water temperature is a potential danger to swimmers. Since historical records have been kept, it’s estimated that nearly 300,000 people have fallen to the ferocity of this lake, and nearly 10,000 ships have plummeted to its depths. Surely, the inherent structural and environmental dangers of the lake are responsible for much of the death toll, but there are plenty of instances when natural explanations don’t seem to fit—that’s when we have to at least consider the possibility of the unnatural.

MAGNETIC ANOMALIES

One common theory blamed for triangle disappearances is that magnetic anomalies cause compasses to spin wildly and become ineffective. To put it simply, there are two main factors that affect compasses: magnetic declination (sometimes referred to as variation) and magnetic deviation. Declination is the difference between true north and magnetic north, and that varies from place to place around the globe. Mariners and pilots need to account for and adjust to these variations or they’ll find themselves way off course. Lake Michigan, on average, varies about 4 to 5 degrees to the west, although there’s a localized anomaly near Escanaba that varies by 13.8 degrees or more. Declination can change over time too, as it’s affected by things such as erosion.

In recent years, there have been numerous reports of black sand on several Lake Michigan beaches. The unusually colored grains are mostly composed of magnetite, a magnetic mineral that’s present in the igneous and metamorphic rocks that form the lake’s basin and shoreline. The normal concentration of magnetite in Lake Michigan beach sand is about 2 percent, but measurements of up to 20 percent aren’t uncommon when high water or strong wave action drag more of the particles to the shore. Although it’s unlikely that these events cause significant or sudden changes in declination, it’s an example of a natural process that can have an eventual impact.

Magnetic deviation, on the other hand, is the error induced in a compass by a nearby magnetic field. For example, if you were to hold a compass near a large hunk of iron, the needle would point to the iron, not to magnetic north. Plenty of common things produce a magnetic field, including many metals, electronics, power lines, batteries, cellphones, keys…even underwire bras! Of course, it’s silly to think that a pilot’s bra could cause the plane to crash or wind up off course, but potential magnetic deviation is a factor in navigation.

So, is it likely that magnetic anomalies are the cause of some triangle disasters? Probably not, but a deviation—say, from an electrical storm— could possibly cause a magnetic compass to act unpredictably. While that alone wouldn’t be a major problem, especially in a commercial aircraft or ship with other sophisticated navigational equipment, it could certainly contribute to confusion in an inexperienced or inattentive pilot or mariner in smaller private vessels.

LEY LINES AND ENERGY VORTEXES

The concept of ley lines was first introduced in the 1920s by English antiquarian Alfred Watkins and later adopted by various groups such as the Earth mysteries movement, ufologists and other esoteric sects, each of which added its own spin. Originally, Watkins noticed that he could draw straight lines on a map that intersected with various ancient landmarks and structures. He thought that these represented early trade routes, but archaeologists summarily dismissed his theory, noting that it would have been impractical for primitive people to travel in a straight line that crossed mountains or waterways. In addition, they pointed out that it would be nearly impossible to draw a line across Britain that didn’t cross over a few important archaeological sites, as the country is filled with them. Undeterred, in 1927, Watkins published a book titled The Ley Hunter’s Manual. When he died in 1935, only a few proponents remained, and his theories were soon mostly forgotten—that is, until the counterculture movement of the 1960s.

At that point, the idea of ley lines enjoyed a renaissance of sorts, but with the added twist that the lines were thought to be imbued with some sacred significance or mystical power. These lines of power were believed to emanate ancient earth energies, somewhat akin to the idea of a geological feng shui. In places where ley lines cross, the intersection is said to emit still more concentrated energy, possibly even creating an energy vortex. Many earth-based and pagan practices incorporate earth energies. Some ufologists have even advanced the theory that the lines act as a sort of landing guide for UFOs, although that belief hasn’t been widely accepted. Interestingly, according to ley line maps, one runs almost directly down the middle of Lake Michigan from north to south.

Energy vortexes (or vortices) are a more recent concept, one that can be traced to psychic Page Bryant. Bryant was self-described as a teacher of sacred ecology and Earth healing, and while living in Sedona, Arizona, she advanced the idea that certain locations on earth either gave off or received sacred energy that could trigger healing and a higher consciousness. The Visit Sedona blog explains it: [T]here are special spots that have been identified where the energy is more intense and where you are more likely to actually feel the energy. These vortexes have been further categorized into ‘feminine’ (energy entering the earth) and ‘masculine’ (energy coming out of the earth).…The vortex energy is powerful and transformational. Sites such as Stonehenge, the Great Pyramids of Egypt and the Mayan ruins in Mexico are considered to be vortexes, and believers stream there to tune into the spiritual energies. However, although vortexes are usually considered to be positive and healing, it’s claimed that negative-energy vortexes exist as well. These points of powerful electromagnetic energy are believed to cause disharmony and potential danger.

Although there’s no proof that ley lines or energy vortexes exist, they’ve been mentioned as possible explanations for mysterious happenings in places associated with energetic anomalies. Places like the Lake Michigan Triangle.

UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OR SUBMERGED OBJECTS (UFOS AND USOS)

This book would be remiss if it didn’t include the most popular usual suspects for strange disappearances: UFOs and USOs (and UAPs, or unidentified aerial phenomena, the term most currently preferred by government agencies). Whatever you call them, these otherworldly visitors have been documented in our skies (and sometimes in our waters) since pre-biblical times. Originally, all UFO sightings were understood to mean extraterrestrials, and people who saw spaceships found themselves to be the subject of scorn and ridicule. In fact, many observers refused to report their sightings, knowing that they’d be called liars or considered to be crazy by their peers. To be sure, some accounts are outright hoaxes, while others are merely misidentified aircraft or natural phenomena. A surprisingly large percentage, however, are truly not able to be identified, at least with our current technology.

Over the last few years, several world governments, including that of the United States, have begrudgingly begun