The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1888-02-03
THE pIcruREp RocKs.
Scenery of Remarl1abIe Appearance Along
Lake Superior's shores.

Scenery of Remarkable Appearance Along
Lake suPerior's shores.
On the southern shore of Lake Su-
perior. and some seventy miles west of
Whitefish Point, and n short distance
east of Witnessing, are the famous
Pictured Rocks. These may be des-
eribed rs series of sandstone bluffs,
rising in many places abruptly out Of
the water to height varying from 30
to 200 feet. Two features impart to
the scenery its remarkable appearance;
the one, the strange style of the cliff
excavations, worn away by the action
of the lake, and the other the quite as
strange way large portions of the sur
face have been colOred by bands of
brilliant colors. To the first is to be
ascribed the name Giles Portails')
given the rocks by the French voya-
geurs, and to the many hues which the
series of bluffs hold so boldly is to be
traced the American name of Pictured
Rocks. 1t is not known when this
term was first applied to them. The
denuding effects of the water upon
these cliffs are shown for a distance of
about five miles along the shore. There
is no beach, the cliffs rising vertically
out of the water In visiting the rocks.
two ways are taken. by passing them
in steamer, and in taking a boat at
some of the nearest points, as Munes-
ing; the steamers run near enough in
good weather for tourists to obtain a
passing view. In going from east to
west we noticed a few of the most inn
portant objects. The Chapel is
vaulted apartment in the rock, thirty on
forty feet above the lake level; marched
roof Of sandstone rests on four columns
of rock so as to leave an apartment
about forty feet in diameter and the
same in length; within are pulpit and
altar. West a short distance of the
chapel is Chapel river, which falls over
a rocky ledge fifteen feet high into the
lake. The Grand Portal is the most
imposing feature of the series; it is 100
feet high by 1913 broad at the water
Level, and the cliff is cut in rises above
the arch, makingt the whole height 185
feet; the great cave, entered through
the Portal, extends back in the shape of
a yaulted room, the arches of the roof
built of yellow limestone and the sides
fretted into fantastic shapes by storm
driven waves. About mile west is
Sail Rock, a group of detached rocks,
which bear a resemblance to the main
sail and lib of a sloOp; the height of
this is about forty feet. Miners Castle,
five miles west of the Chapel, and just
west of Miners river, is the western
end of the Pictured Rocks, and resem-
bles an old turreted castle with an
arehed portal; the height of the adj
vaneed mass in which the Gothic gate
way may be recognized is about sew
enty feet and the height of the main
wall forming the background is lao
feet. In regard to another part of the
| Pictured Rocks a writer says: ''In one
! place there stands n majestic profile
looking north-a woman's face, the
Empress of the Lakes. 1t is the
pleasure of her royal highness to visit
/ the rock only by night, a Diana of the
new world. In the day time search is
vain; she will not reveal herself; but
| when the low down moon shines across
the water, behold she appears. She
| looks to the north, not sadly, not
| sternly, like the old Man of the White
Mountain, but benign of aspect, and so
/ beautiful in her rounded, womanly
curves, that the late watcher falls into
the dream of Endymion; but when he
wakes in the gray dawn he finds her
gone and only shapeless rock glistens
1 in the rays of the rising sum- Chicago
Inter Ocean.