| Porte Des Morts |
Article Index for Porte |
Website Links For Porte |
Information AboutPorte Des Morts |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT PORTE DES MORTS | |
| door county, wisconsin | |
| great lakes | |
| straits of wisconsin | |
| history of wisconsin | |
|
It is unclear how the passage's ominous name originated. The French name for the strait is translated into English as "Door of the Dead". The passage may have been named by the early French explorers who first visited the passage in the late 17th Century , but the passage was likely already connected with death by Native Americans before European contact. It is clear that several Native American canoes crashed against the rocky shores of the channel. The first European vessel to sink in Porte des Morts was a 45 ton French ship called the "Griffin". It was one of the largest ships sailing on the Great Lakes when it was lost in 1679 . More than a hundred other shipwrecks occurred in Porte des Morts from the 17th Century into the early 1910s . Some of the more notable shipwrecks include the loss of the ''Fleetwing'' in 1888 , the ''A.P. Nichols'', ''Forest'', and ''J.E. Gilmore'' in 1892 , and the ''Louisiana'' during the Great Lakes Storm Of 1913 . Despite the name, almost all of the shipwrecks on Porte des Morts were not deadly incidents. This is attributed to the multiple lighthouses and rescue crafts at the strait. Today, most large ships no longer use Porte des Morts when traveling between Lake Michigan and Green Bay, opting instead to go north of Washington Island or pass through the Sturgeon Bay Canal to the south. The main vessel still operating on the channel is a Ferry that provides transportation between Washington Island and the mainland. Recreational boats are also common on the strait during the summer. |
|
|