Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, is located on the Michigan side of the Great Lake Michigan. The park, encompasses 35 miles of shoreline and offers stupendous coastal views.
Sleeping Bear Dune is a go-to stop on your visit to the park. And if you’re daring enough, you can even take on The Dune Climb Trail. On clear days, Sleeping Bear offers beautiful views across the lake to the Manitou Islands.
So why is this area called Sleeping Bear?
I didn’t give it much thought, until I went and visited myself. Turns out, it stems from a local legend from the Anishinaabek tribe, the Indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes.
You can learn about this legend from a nearby posted sign;
Once long ago, in the area that is now Wisconsin, there was a famine and many people died. A bear and two little cubs were trying to leave this area and go around the large lake where there would be more food.
They walked for many days on the beach. But after a while the two little cubs began to whimper with hunger. So Mama bear decided it would be best if they tried to swim across the rest of the lake to get there faster.
They waded into the water, one cub at each of her sides. After swimming a long distance, the cubs began to get very tired. Mama bear pleaded with them “Try hard, the land is not very far.” And soon they came in sight of the shore.
But with each passing moment, the cubs began to get weaker. Only 10 miles away from shore, one cub sank into the water. Soon after, the other also drowned.
Mama bear’s heart was broken but there was nothing she could do.
She waded ashore, not being able to look away from the water, she climbed up the hill and laid down in defeat. Eventually both cubs came to the surface as two little islands. Mama bear, made the top of the dunes her final resting place, forever looking after her cubs.
Another version of the legend:
A mother bear and her two cubs were fleeing a great forest fire on the Wisconsin shore of Lake Michigan. They plunged into the lake and began swimming towards Michigan. The cubs, exhausted, drowned before they could reach land. Stricken by grief, the mother bear, climbed on top of a high bluff to watch for her cubs.
The Great Spirit of Manitou, moved by the mother’s grief, raised the two cubs from the water as islands. The mother bear was covered in sand becoming the great dune that sleeps on the bluff to this day, waiting for her cubs.
A Note on the legends
I do like both versions of the legend. Though I liked that there was some information posted at the park, it fully left out Manitou – the spirit that rose the cubs from the island. and the spirit that both islands were named.
The spirit comes from the beliefs Ojibwe-Anishinaabeg Indigenous people. The spirit of Manitou illuminates the connection of the natural world and spiritual realm. It embodies the essence of everything in existence, serving as a bridge between the physical and spiritual.
So in other-words, the essence of the legend itself. And at the very least, Manitou should be mentioned on the sign.
Today
Mama bear is now Sleeping Bear Dune, a massive sand formation perched 450 feet above the lake. As erosion continues, Mama bear continues to migrate, continuously shifting and morphing with time. The two cubs are North Manitou Island and South Manitou Island, both which are visible from the bluff on a clear day. A little bit of Haze and good luck.
