Pictured Rocks, Michigan, is on Lake Superior and the setting for Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha.
I entered through a forested area with the waterfall and popped out onto one of the most spectacular beaches. The dunes are enormous and dramatic with trees hanging off the edge and falling off every now and then. The mixture and the color of the different types of rocks, which have been eroded to uniform shapes and sizes, showing through the crystal-clear water is like nothing I’ve seen before. Pictured Rocks is a good name.
Staring out over the rocks, seeing the same coast that the Ojibwa had lived on for hundreds or maybe thousands of years, I could not help but think of all I know about Longfellow and his epic poem. Which is Rodney Dangerfield trying to seduce his English professor in Back to School by telling her she should see his Longfellow. And what I’m sure is the culturally sensitive “Indian” episode of I Love Lucy in which Lucy dresses as Hiawatha’s lover Minnehaha. I don’t remember exactly why, but I’m sure it was so Ricky would let her be in the show.

The last picture shows that someone took some time to carve a fake tomb. I thought I had discovered something until I got much closer.