Single Turret at Pictured Rocks
July 23, 2006
Provided by: Shawn Malone, LakeSuperiorPhoto.com
Summary authors & editors: Shawn Malone
Miner's Castle is perhaps the most noteable and noticeable of the sandstone formations in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in northern Michigan. It stands more than 200 ft (60 m) above the waters of Lake Superior. These sandstone rocks are eroded by both wind and rain, but especially by freezing and thawing. Spring of 2006 saw an unexpected and sad transfiguration of Miner's Castle with the highest of the two turrets breaking off and sliding into Lake Superior. The castle that has stood sentinel over the Great Lake of Superior is now down to one remaining turret. The Miner's Castle formation is described by ecologist/geologist Walter Loopeas as a crumbly, cross bedded sandstone, poorly cemented by secondary quartz.
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