23 - Sleeping Bear Point

This original photograph from approximately 1987 was submitted by one of our citizen scientists – Grace Dickinson Johnson of the Dickinson Photo Gallery on Glen Lake. The original photograph was taken from a sand dune looking north toward the vicinity of Sleeping Bear Point and across the Manitou Passage to North Manitou Island. In the earlier photograph, the area closest to the point is marked with bare sand and in the swales in the foreground the vegetation is mostly grasses with some shrubs and trees. By 2019, however, trees have overtaken some of the swales and grasses have expanded over the bare sand dunes on the left.

The research team would like to thank the staff at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore for their assistance in recapturing this photograph.

LAT: 44.911859, LON: -86.039546

Photo Credit – ~1987, Grace Dickinson Johnson; 2019, Kevin McKeehan, Michigan State University.

Do you have any memories of this location, past or present? Share in the comments below!