Kernan Memorial Nature Sanctuary
After planning a last-minute trip to Harbor Beach, I started scanning the coastline of Lake Huron for parks and preserves I may have missed on past trips to the area. I stumbled upon a sanctuary called Kernan Memorial Nature Sanctuary and added it to my list.
We arrived on a bitterly cold February morning and weren’t really sure where to go. There wasn’t a map, and there was just one group of footprints freshly laid in the snow, so we ventured onward without so much of a thought as to where we were going.
We followed what we believed to be a trail to a small wooden bridge over a little river (or maybe just a drainage ditch; either way, it was frozen). Once we crossed the bridge, the ground was encased in a thin layer of ice, and there were a few inches of water below it. Although we all had waterproof boots on, we didn’t want to test our luck, so we returned back inland. We decided to follow in the footsteps we saw earlier, and they took us on a narrow path out to Lake Huron.
The little natural inlet is called the Whiskey Harbor, and the area surrounding it was never developed. The land where the sanctuary sits was once owned by the Kernan Family, who purchased it in 1902. It was donated by the estate of William J. Kernan in 1989, and the 45-acre property has been preserved by the Michigan Nature Association ever since.
According to local folklore, Whiskey Harbor was used to smuggle booze during prohibition. Canadian Whiskey would come on passing ships, get handed off to bootleggers on smaller boats, and return through the Whiskey Bay to be unloaded and distributed across Michigan.
We spent some time on the ice before returning inland, but the views of Lake Huron in the distance were quite majestic. The wind was whipping snow, which was frigid but beautiful. After further exploration online, the main trail continues from where we stopped after the small bridge around the curvature of the harbor. I am certain we will be back to explore this unique little sanctuary, hopefully in warmer weather next time.
