Dangerous wave conditions and possible lake shore flooding remain a possibility Tuesday, the National Weather Service said.
Teen Lost In Lake Michigan As People Urged To Stay Away Because Of Dangerous Waves And Currents. The previous year, 2018 was a record year for drowning on the Great Lakes, with 117 fatalities reported. Published on Aug 4, 2020 7:57AM CDT Lakeview, Boystown, Wrigleyville Primary category in which blog post is published It was a cold day in early March, not too different probably from that day in 1893. *NO SWIMMING on Lake Michigan today due to high waves 4-6′ and risk of rip current. TODAY: A crisp, cool morning. 78.
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have you ever felt that sensation that when you see a place you feel you belong there? “Wriggling and twisting around and swimming faster than the ship was going.”Like Brinkerhoff’s men, who, upon hearing tell of the serpent, are said to have sworn off drink, the frightened passengers aboard Stufflebeam’s ship “threw a number of bottles away”—and then the serpent disappeared, heading toward Benton Harbor.In 1903, a fisherman reported seeing a sea serpent in the lake, off of 22nd Street.
There were the reports of a sea serpent, in 1895, making the rounds of various resorts along the lake over the course of several days that summer. Brinkerhoff was reading near the window of his second story officer’s quarters at Fort Sheridan one frigid, early spring afternoon when he observed a “very large” black speck amid the waves of Lake Michigan.“Come out and look at this thing in the lake!” he shouted to his lieutenant, W.F.
that is lake Michigan! But, the Tribune reported ninety years later, the creature had actually been a sea lion named Big Ben, escaped from the Lincoln Park Zoo.In 1943, the self-described “oldest of the old-timers,” a man by the name of Charles “Pickles” Crager, told the paper of an incident in “the nineties”—the 1890s, of course—in which what some had believed to be a serpent in the lake was a large sea turtle which got loose while being shipped.
But the South Haven video and H.R. Nor, I’m sad to say, did I know anybody with a boat to take me far out into Lake Michigan where the beast would surely dwell.But that didn’t stop me from seeking the sea serpent out where I could. By the time our current century rolled around, talk of the monster had all but disappeared—banished to the depths by the troubles of our times. Months after one was spotted in 1904, the Tribune observed that “more people are using Lake Michigan as a summer resort than ever before.”Then there’s the September 1934, sighting by Captain G.E. Date of experience: October 2019. “The effort seemed to revive it,” he said of the creature’s struggle to break free.
“The head was very large, dark above, and light underneath. On a rented boat for a friend’s bachelor party last summer, I turned my attention from the city’s glossy skyline to the choppy waters below, hoping to spy something supernatural. Any self-respecting Chicago raconteur can give you at least the gist of the Resurrection Mary legend—but who among us, save for our old friend Pickles, can tell you about our local denizen of the deep?Down the serpent swell I went, sinking deeper and deeper into the local mythology. “It looked toward us for a second and, then, turning around, made its way directly out into the lake. They also warned of lakeshore flooding and swollen river mouths along the shore south of Holland.The lake’s high water levels and frequent big-wave events this year have caused flooding along the Lakeshore, heavy dune erosion in some areas, and Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our © 2020 Advance Local Media LLC. I obviously had no such vessel with which to give chase to my slithery nemesis.
Of course, the Lake Michigan sea serpent wasn’t real—but I wanted to seek it nonetheless.
Large waves pummel the SW Michigan shoreline in early MarchAccording to the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids, “North-Northwest winds build late Thursday night into Friday with a forecast of 30 to 40 mph, gusting to 50 mph.” The strong winds brought an onslaught of waves pummeling the already-eroded Lake Michigan shoreline.Given the wind direction, the National Weather Service said north-facing shorelines would be the most vulnerable to erosion. But the muskies I’d see mounted on the walls of bait shops and supper clubs and rented cabins were a reminder that our own local lakes were home to some pretty extraordinary creatures themselves.But Nemo, I was not, and soon my landlocked childhood gave way to a landlocked adulthood, and my pelagic daydreams dried up—just like my aspirations of being a cowboy or a 1930s bank robber. Will you be safe from dangerous swimming conditions on Lake Michigan this year?
After the escapism, there’d be the inevitable return.But before all that—before everything changed—I went over to Fort Sheridan, where Brinkerhoff and his lieutenant had claimed to see the monster. H.R.