Carp Lake River

The Headlands International Dark Sky Park is a 550-acre (220 ha) county park in the U.S. state of Michigan. The park preserves over 2 mi (3.2 km) of undeveloped Lake Michigan shoreline south and west of McGulpin Point Light in the Straits of Mackinac. It is located in, and is operated by, Emmet County in Northern Michigan. The nearest town is Mackinaw City, Michigan. The park contains woodlands and many species of rare and endangered plant life. Park fauna include the black bear, whitetail deer, coyotes, bald eagles, osprey, and the wild turkey. Marked trails are provided for hiking, photography, bicycling and cross-country skiing. In May 2011, Headlands Park was awarded International Dark Sky Park designation by the International Dark-Sky Association. It was the 6th such park in the United States, and the 9th such park worldwide, to be awarded this designation. Park signage celebrates astronomy and the heritage of the Native Americans of Northern Michigan.

French Farm Lake is a lake in Wawatam Township in Emmet County in the U.S. state of Michigan. 802 acres (325 ha) in size, it is located approximately 2.7 miles (4.3 km) southwest of Mackinaw City, Michigan. It is the northernmost lake of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. It is served by the North Country Trail from Mackinaw City and by local dirt roads. A typical shallow lake in the North Woods, the lake is partly surrounded by wetlands. Like much of the Mackinaw State Forest the region around the lake was cut over in the late 1800s for timber; exhausted land parcels were allowed to return to the public sector. The French Farm Lake State Flooding Wildlife Management Area, a unit within the State Forest that is owned and managed by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (M-DNR), is a parcel of land of 2,948 acres (1,193 ha) in extent. M-DNR maintains an earthen boat ramp close to the northern end of the lake, from which boaters can launch vessels and fish for bass and pike. The surrounding wetlands are breeding grounds for mallards and wood ducks.The lake's name may be derived from a frontier farm cultivated on the lakeshore in the 18th century. The farmstead, which supplied food to Fort Michilimackinac, was excavated by archaeologists in 1981-1982. A monograph was published.

McGulpin Point Light was constructed as a navigational aid through the Straits of Mackinac. The light began operation in 1869, making it one of the oldest surviving lighthouses in the Straits. Only in operation until 1906, the light is located on McGulpin Point, (500 Headlands Road), approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) west of Fort Michilimackinac. McGulpin Point Lighthouse & Historic Site has been owned by Emmet County since 2008 and the facility has been an official private Aid to Navigation on the NOAA chart map since 2009. Tours were available during the 2019 season for a small fee.

Wawatam Township is a civil township of Emmet County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the township population was 711. The village of Mackinaw City is located mostly within the township. The township is named after Wawatam, an Odawa chief noted for rescuing British trader Alexander Henry the elder from the Ojibwas' capture of Fort Michilimackinac in 1763.

Carp Lake is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Emmet County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the CDP had a population of 357. It is located within Carp Lake Township. It was founded by Octave Terrian and later became a station on the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad in 1880.

The Forrest J. Stimpson House, also known as the Mackinaw City Marine Recording Station, is a private house that was located at 516 N. Huron Boulevard in Mackinaw City, Michigan; it has been moved from its listed location on Trails End Road. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1978 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

Lake Paradise, historically called "Carp Lake", is a lake that feeds the Carp Lake River. It is primarily located within Emmet County in the U.S. state of Michigan, with an eastern bay of the lake extending into Cheboygan County. The lake covers an area of 1,900 acres (7.7 km2). The community of Carp Lake is located near the lake's western shore.The Michigan Department of Natural Resources operates a boat ramp on the lake's west shore. The lake is noted for bass, perch, northern pike, and walleye. As with other lakes in northern Michigan, Lake Paradise has been affected by invasive Eurasian watermilfoil. The lake is served by U.S. Highway 31 at Carp Lake. The nearest limited-access interchange is exit 336 on Interstate 75.Lake Paradise should not be confused with Paradise Lake in Cass County, Michigan.

Lake Michigan–Huron (also Huron–Michigan) is the body of water combining Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, which are joined through the 5-mile-wide (8.0 km), 295-foot-deep (90 m), open-water Straits of Mackinac. Huron and Michigan are hydrologically a single lake because the flow of water through the straits keeps their water levels in overall equilibrium. Although the flow is generally eastward, the water moves in either direction depending on local conditions. Combined, Lake Michigan–Huron is the largest freshwater lake by area in the world. Lake Superior is larger than either individually, so it is counted as the largest of the Great Lakes when Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are considered separately.

Fort Michilimackinac was an 18th-century French, and later British, fort and trading post at the Straits of Mackinac; it was built on the northern tip of the lower peninsula of the present-day state of Michigan in the United States. Built around 1715, and abandoned in 1783, it was located along the Straits, which connect Lake Huron and Lake Michigan of the Great Lakes of North America. The present-day village of Mackinaw City developed around the site of the fort, which has been designated as a National Historic Landmark. It is preserved as an open-air historical museum, with several reconstructed wooden buildings and palisade, and is now part of Fort Michilimackinac State Park.

Fort Michilimackinac State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located in Mackinaw City along the Straits of Mackinac. The park contains Fort Michilimackinac, which itself is dedicated a National Historic Landmark and Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse as well as the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse Signal Tower which contains a foghorn.

The Straits of Mackinac ( MAK-ə-naw; French: Détroit de Mackinac) are the short waterways between the U.S. state of Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas, traversed by the Mackinac Bridge. The main strait is 3+1⁄2 miles (5.6 kilometers) wide with a maximum depth of 295 feet (90 meters; 49 fathoms), and connects the Great Lakes of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Given the large size and configuration of the straits, hydrologically, the two connected lakes are one body of water, studied as Lake Michigan–Huron. Historically, the native Odawa people called the region around the Straits Michilimackinac. Three islands form the eastern edge of the Straits of Mackinac; two are populated—Bois Blanc Island and Mackinac Island, while the third, Round Island, is uninhabited and a designated wilderness area. The Straits of Mackinac are major shipping lanes, providing passage for raw materials and finished goods and connecting, for instance, the iron mines of Minnesota to the steel mills of Gary, Indiana. Before the railroads reached Chicago from the east, most immigrants arrived in the Midwest and Great Plains by ships on the Great Lakes. The straits are five miles (8 km) wide at their narrowest point, where they are spanned by the Mackinac Bridge. Before the bridge was built, car ferries transported vehicles across the straits. Today passenger-only ferries carry people to Mackinac Island, which does not permit cars. Visitors can take their vehicles on a car ferry to Bois Blanc Island. The straits are shallow and narrow enough to freeze over in the winter. Navigation is ensured for year-round shipping to the Lower Great Lakes by the use of icebreakers. The straits were an important Native American and fur trade route. The Straits of Mackinac are named after Mackinac Island. The local Ojibwe Native Americans in the Straits of Mackinac region likened the shape of the island to that of a turtle, so they named the island Mitchimakinak, meaning "Big Turtle". When the British explored the area, they shortened the name to its present form: Mackinac.Located on the southern side of the straits is the town of Mackinaw City, the site of Fort Michilimackinac, a reconstructed French fort founded in 1715, and on the northern side is St. Ignace, site of a French Catholic mission to the Indians, founded in 1671. The eastern end of the straits was controlled by Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island, a British colonial and early American military base and fur trade center, founded in 1781.

The Straits of Mackinac Shipwreck Preserve is a 148-square-mile (380 km2) state preserve in and around the Straits of Mackinac. The preserve is divided in two by the Mackinac Bridge. The waters of the preserve include the waters offshore from Mackinaw City and St. Ignace, as well as all or part of the shorelines of Bois Blanc Island, Mackinac Island, Round Island, and St. Helena Island. The preserve contains at least eleven identified diveable wrecks, with more just outside the official boundaries. There are also a number of shallow sites suitable for snorkeling and kayak visits. Frequent fog and congested shipping added to the count of shipwrecks in the Straits area. Half a dozen lighthouses in and around the preserve testify to the dangers that existed prior to the invention of radar in the 1940s. However, tragedies have continued. One modern wreck within the boundaries of the preserve is Cedarville, a lake freighter transporting limestone that sank in 1965 after a collision. Divers also visit underwater formations of Mackinac breccia near Mackinac Island; one such formation, the "Rock Maze", is offshore from Arch Rock. Further east off Arch Rock, a drowned, 100-foot (30 m)-high waterfall formation, Mackinac Falls, was discovered in August 2007.