Looking Back At The Mysteries Around Michigan’s Upper Thumb Area

There is apparently some serious mystery surrounding the Port Austin area near the tip of Michigan's "thumb" that was documented 90 years ago a series of stories, poems, and historical notes by Chester Hey. Michigan has countless amounts of urban legends and tales that have been shared in all corners of both peninsulas. Some of them are a little far fetched but some are still a mystery which still draw believers, as one person documented:

This Huron County History contains some fascinating little stories of the Upper Thumb. One story takes place near Port Austin at a place called Kimball’s Point. This legend revolved around secret [Native American] lead mines supposedly located near a [Native] Camp called Holbrook. It was on the Cass River and quite near the Sanilac Petroglyphs.

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The legend goes that a chief’s daughter of a tribe living near Port Austin fell in love with a French Canadian, who made his home with this tribe of Huron natives, while a chief of another tribe also loved the same woman. After someone betrayed the location of the secret lead mines the natives owned near Holbrook, the jealous native chief accused the white man of betraying the natives and made him prisoner. But thanks to a native grandmother feeling sorry for the couple and distracting the braves to the Northern Lights, she cut the bonds of the prisoner and they fled to Kimball’s Point.

Sadly, they were never able to find a canoe and were followed by the tribe and killed at Kimball's Point on a cliff.

It's unfortunate they didn't have Clair C. Patterson there to tell them the dangers of lead, but those were different times.