Ghost Forest, Sleeping Bear Point

Ghost Forest, Sleeping Bear Point, photo by Matt Callow.

Matt writes All over the Sleeping Bear Dunes are the remains of trees killed by the constantly shifting sands, often clustered together in eerie stands of ghost forest.

Matt recently spent two weeks in an artist residency for the Glen Arbor Art Association. He also has placed this photo on a map. The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore says that the trees in these ghost forests were killed hundreds of years ago by the moving dunes and that:

After an initial phase of active sand accumulation, a period of stability followed when trees began to grow on the dune. Later, more sand moved in and buried the trees. Two layers of buried soil within the dune indicate that there was a second period of stability and growth followed by another period of sand build-up and then the final growth of the trees and shrubs that now cover the sheltered portions of the dunes.

More in the Sleeping Bear Dunes Geology auto-tour.