A Look at History
Arch Rock Has Counterpart on Haunted Lake Superior Island
BY FRANK STRAUS

Mackinac Islanders, with some justification, believe our beautiful Arch Rock to be unique. While natural arches and bridges are fairly common in the eroded red sandstone country of the Upper Colorado River Basin in Utah, they are very rare in the Great Lakes. In fact, only two natural bridges are known along the shores of the state of Michigan. Mackinac Island's Arch Rock, a favorite with travelers since the 1800s, is seen by perhaps 300,000 people annually. The other arch is scarcely mentioned in guidebooks, and only a few people even know of its existence. On Lake Superior's mysterious Amygdaloid Island, this second arch rock is seen by, perhaps, a few dozen people each year.

Geologists say that both natural bridges were formed during the high-water Nipissing period many years after the glaciers retreated from the upper Great Lakes. However, the rocks of Amygdaloid Island, after which the island was named, are very different from the familiar limestone breccia of Mackinac Island. Located less than a mile off the shore of Isle Royale, the smaller island is a sterile rib of hard igneous rock. Withstanding the pounding of harsh Lake Superior storms, the rocky, thong-shaped island is part of Isle Royale National Park.

A vintage photograph of Arch Rock on Mackinac Island, counterpart to an arched rock on Amygdaloid Island. Geologists say both natural bridges were formed during the high-water Nipissing period many years after the glaciers retreated from the upper Great Lakes.

Lake Superior is known throughout the world for the agates that sometimes wash ashore on its beaches. The eagerly sought, banded gemstones come in all colors, with the pink and red tints often the most eagerly sought after. It is generally agreed that there are reefs of agate-bearing rock underneath the lake's surface, and the agate pebbles that wash ashore are stones yielded by these hidden reefs.

One of these reefs lies above the surface of the lake. The Amygdaloid Flow, on the island of the same name, is a mass of basalt studded with pinkish and red banded agates like raisins in a loaf of cake. The deposit has never been extensively mined by gem-hunters, and is protected today by rangers of the National Park Service.

Many people familiar with the Isle Royale archipelago say, however, that the park rangers are not the only ones who patrol and protect Amygdaloid Island from those who would rob it of its treasures.

It was in late November, 1927, that the Canada Steamship Lines (CSL) dispatched one of its newest package freighters, the Kamloops, westward from lower Ontario to Thunder Bay. The last days of November were an ill-omened time to dispatch a cargo boat to the upper Lakes - particularly in those days, when most cargo boats did not have a radio set. However, the CSL was caught in a dilemma, for one of its best customers, a Thunder Bay paper mill, was asking urgently that some heavy and expensive papermaking machinery be shipped westward for installation before the close of the season. If the machinery missed the last boat, the heavy capital investment it represented would lie idle until the following spring.

The CSL had a cargo boat only three years old, the Kamloops, to handle this urgent request. The machinery was loaded onto the Kamloops, and the boat, manned by 22 seamen, steamed northwestward, locking through the Soo Canal on December 4.

Soon after entering Lake Superior, the Kamloops encountered fierce, gale-force north winds accompanied by blizzard snow. The winds hurled green water from the lake onto the decks of the boats caught in the storm. As the water froze, the vessels became sluggish, slightly top-heavy, and difficult to steer. The Kamloops was heading for the dangerous Passage Island channel north of Isle Royale, the rock-strewn, narrow passageway from the main basin of Lake Superior toward Thunder Bay harbor.

The stevedores and harbor workers waiting at Thunder Bay for the arrival of the Kamloops would never see the vessel. On the night of December 6, it was seen by another boat near Isle Royale, and was never again seen above the surface of the lake.

The following spring, some fishermen made a macabre discovery on Amygdaloid Island. A small circle of lost seamen from the Kamloops were found on the island's desolate northwest shore. Sitting around a dead campfire, the doomed men looked as though they had found little or nothing to eat on the sterile island.

To add to the horror of the scene, the fishermen found that some wolves had come upon the silent winter campsite. It is well known that wolves rarely or never attack live human beings, but the men had been silent and the wolves had been hungry.

Fifty years later, in 1977, the wreck of the Kamloops was discovered in more than 200 feet of water offshore. It is a dangerous dive site, and a new death roll has begun to be added to the 20 men and two women who died here on or about December 7, 1927.

Amygdaloid Island is an islet of semiprecious gems to this day. Few of its agates show up on the world's jewelry markets. Access to the island is very difficult. It is said that adventurous boaters can buy a ticket or hitch a ride to Rock Harbor Lodge, on Isle Royale's northern tip. From there, it's a boat ride of approximately 12 miles, along one of the rockiest lee shores of cold Lake Superior, to the haunted island.

For those who know say that the gemstones of Amygdaloid Island are guarded to this day by a watch-and-watch of 22 silent men and women. Every so often, it is said, a ship's clock can be heard striking, signaling the changing of the watch on the deserted, wind-swept island.