Lighthouse
Big Sable Point Lighthouse
An 1867 lighthouse, 112 feet tall and banded black and white, on the Lake Michigan shore in Ludington State Park. You reach it on a 1.8-mile walk or ride.
The Straits forts, maritime museums and lumber-era towns tell the story of the region.
Places for history and heritage
Historic site
Colonial Michilimackinac
Mackinaw City's 18th-century fort and fur trading village, rebuilt from historic maps and one of the longest-running archaeological digs in the country.
Attraction
Earl Young Mushroom Houses
Charlevoix's curving stone homes by self-taught builder Earl Young. They are private, so you see them from the street on a self-guided tour.
Historic site
Fort Mackinac
The fort on the bluff above Mackinac Island's harbor, founded by the British in 1780 and now a living history museum with fourteen restored buildings.
Lighthouse
Grand Haven South Pierhead Lights
Two red range lights on Grand Haven's south pier, joined by an elevated catwalk, marking the harbor entrance where the Grand River meets Lake Michigan.
Bridge
Mackinac Bridge
The five-mile suspension bridge that carries I-75 across the Straits of Mackinac between Mackinaw City and St. Ignace, open since November 1, 1957.
State park
Mackinac Island State Park
Michigan's first state park covers more than 80 percent of Mackinac Island: forest, limestone formations, historic sites and 70-plus miles of roads and trails.
Lighthouse
Mission Point Lighthouse
An 1870 lighthouse at the northern tip of the Old Mission Peninsula, with a climbable tower, a small museum, a beach and trails around it.
Lighthouse
Point Betsie Lighthouse
An 1850s brick lighthouse on the Lake Michigan shore north of Frankfort, with a museum, a climbable tower and a public beach beside it.
Attraction
S.S. Badger
A 1953 coal-fired steamship and National Historic Landmark that carries passengers and vehicles across Lake Michigan between Ludington and Manitowoc, Wisconsin.
National park
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
Dunes, high bluffs, beaches, inland lakes and two islands along 65 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline in Benzie and Leelanau counties.
Trail
Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail
A mostly paved trail of about 22 miles through Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, linking Empire, the Dune Climb, Glen Haven, Glen Arbor and Port Oneida.
Historic site
Bay View Association
A Victorian summer community above Little Traverse Bay and a National Historic Landmark, with summer concerts and lectures open to the public.
Attraction
Beaver Island
Lake Michigan's largest island, a ferry ride of just over two hours from Charlevoix, with beaches, lighthouses and long trails. Plan to stay the night.
Museum
Bottle House Museum
A house built in 1941 from about 60,000 glass bottles, now the Kaleva Historical Society's museum of local Finnish-American history.
Lighthouse
Charlevoix South Pier Lighthouse
A red steel pierhead light where Charlevoix's Pine River Channel meets Lake Michigan, beside Michigan Beach and a favorite place to watch the sunset.
Lighthouse
Frankfort North Breakwater Lighthouse
A 67-foot square steel lighthouse at the head of Frankfort's north breakwater, marking the harbor entrance in full view of the city beach.
Historic site
Garden Theater
Frankfort's 1923 Main Street movie house, renovated and run by a nonprofit, showing first-run and independent films and home to the Frankfort Film Festival.
Beach
Glen Haven Beach
A Lake Michigan beach on Sleeping Bear Bay at Glen Haven Historic Village, with seasonal restrooms, picnic areas, the Cannery Boat Museum and loaner sand wheelchairs.
State park
Interlochen State Park
Michigan's first state park, between Duck and Green lakes, with old-growth pines, two campgrounds and the Interlochen arts campus next door.
State park
Leelanau State Park
The state park at the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula, with the Grand Traverse Lighthouse, a rustic campground and the Cathead Bay trails to a sandy beach.
Museum
Little Traverse History Museum
Petoskey's history museum in the 1892 railroad depot on the waterfront, with a Hemingway collection and exhibits on Native American history and lumbering.
Museum
Manistee County Historical Museum
Manistee's history museum in a downtown drugstore building on River Street, with period rooms, a log cabin replica and maritime exhibits.
Lighthouse
Manistee North Pierhead Light
Manistee's 38-foot pierhead light at the end of the north pier. Tower climbs began in 2026; the tower is now listed as closed until May 21, 2027.
Waterfront
Manistee Riverwalk
A boardwalk along the Manistee River behind downtown, with benches, history markers and boats going by, open year-round.
Museum
Maritime Museum at Sleeping Bear Point Life-Saving Station
A National Park Service museum in the 1901 Sleeping Bear Point Life-Saving Station at Glen Haven, on lifesaving, the Coast Guard and Great Lakes shipping.
Museum
Muskegon Museum of Art
Muskegon's art museum, founded in 1912 as the Hackley Art Gallery, with American and European paintings, studio glass and a newly doubled building.
Lighthouse
Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse
The 1892 castle-style lighthouse just east of the Mackinac Bridge, with restored keepers' rooms, a tower you can climb and a shipwreck museum.
Historic site
Ramsdell Theatre
Manistee's 1903 opera house, on the National Register of Historic Places, restored and still staging plays, concerts and live broadcasts.
Historic site
S.S. City of Milwaukee
A 1931 Great Lakes rail car ferry and National Historic Landmark preserved in Manistee, with guided tours in summer and a haunted ship in October.
Historic site
The Playhouse at White Lake (Howmet Playhouse)
Whitehall's 1916 theater, renovated and renamed the Playhouse at White Lake, with summer theater, Michigan music, films and youth theater.
Lighthouse
White River Light Station
An 1875 brick lighthouse at the White Lake channel, now a maritime museum, with a 38-foot tower you can climb in season.
On the map
History and heritage: places on the map
32 places on an OpenStreetMap map
Recommended towns for history and heritage
Towns an independent source (such as the DNR, the National Park Service or Pure Michigan) singles out for this. Listed by town size, not ranked.
Charlevoix & Petoskey
Charlevoix
For boaters, beachgoers and first-timers: a harbor town where three lakes meet, with a summer drawbridge, a pier lighthouse and Earl Young's stone houses.
Ludington & Manistee
Ludington
A Lake Michigan harbor town for beach and lighthouse trips, with the S.S. Badger car ferry and a big dune state park just north of town.
Mackinac & Straits
Mackinac Island
A car-free island in the Straits of Mackinac. Bike or walk from a busy harbor town to an old fort and a state park that covers most of the island.
Mackinac & Straits
Mackinaw City
The base for the Straits, beside the Mackinac Bridge at the tip of the Lower Peninsula, with a reconstructed colonial fort and ferries to Mackinac Island.
Ludington & Manistee
Manistee
A Lake Michigan port city where the river meets the lake, with a historic downtown riverwalk, three city beaches and a pierhead light to climb in season.
Charlevoix & Petoskey
Petoskey
A walkable bay town for stone hunting, shopping the Gaslight District and riding the Little Traverse Wheelway, with historic Bay View next door.
Benzie & Sleeping Bear · Small town
Glen Arbor
Your base for northern Sleeping Bear Dunes: a small town between Lake Michigan and Glen Lake, about 4 miles from the Dune Climb by trail.
Ludington & Manistee · Small town
Kaleva
A tiny Finnish-American village in Manistee County, worth a stop for the Bottle House Museum and streets named from the Kalevala.
Also with history and heritage nearby
Lakes
Bay · Mackinac & Straits
Straits of Mackinac
The strait between Michigan's peninsulas, with harbors at Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island, the bridge, island ferries and protected shipwrecks.
- Public launch
Lake · Charlevoix & Petoskey
Walloon Lake
A deep, clear all-sports lake south of Petoskey with marinas at Walloon Lake village, small township beaches and launches, and ice fishing in winter.
- All-sports
- Swim beach
- Public launch
- Rentals