Sunday Study: Upper Tahquamenon Falls

Lay aside your cloak, O Birch-tree! Lay aside your white-skin wrapper, For the Summer-time is coming, And the sun is warm in heaven, And you need no white-skin wrapper!”Thus aloud cried Hiawatha In the solitary forest, By the rushing Taquamenaw ~from The Song of Hiawatha

photo by Allan M

Tahquamenon Falls, U.P. Michigan, photo by by Bluejacket.

Blue Jacket, who took the above photo of Michigan’s largest waterfall in May of 2005, writes:
Located in the Upper Peninsula in Michigan, these are the upper falls. This is the land of Longfellow’s Hiawatha. Hiawatha built his canoe “by the rushing Tahquamenaw”. The amber color is caused by tanin leached from the Cedar, Spruce & Hemlock in the swamps drained by the river.

Tahquamenon Falls – Upper Falls, photo by heidigoseek.

Heidi’s pic from September of 2005 seems evocative of the solitary forest.

Upper Falls, photo by jamierytlewski.

Upper Falls is one of a set of pics of the Upper and Lower Tahquamenon Falls taken in February of 2005 by Jamie Rytlewski.

The DNR has a page for Tahquamenon Falls State Park but Exploring the North’s page seems a lot more welcoming and says:

The Upper Falls is one of the largest waterfalls east of the Mississippi. It has a drop of nearly 50 feet and is more than 200 feet across. A maximum flow of more than 50,000 gallons of water per second has been recorded cascading over its precipice.

Upper Tahquamenon Falls, photo by gsgeorge.

In dry times, as Geoffrey George writes, the water can be little more than a trickle.

Here’s a link to more Tahquamenon Falls photos & information from Michigan in Pictures (also see the waterfall tag).