Sanilac Petroglyphs

On a sandstone outcrop of the Cass River in Michigan's Thumb, about 165 carvings record between 300 and 1,400 years of Anishinaabe presence, the largest known collection of early Native American petroglyphs in Michigan. The Michigan History Center gives the figures their community's own names: Ebmodaakowet, the archer who shoots knowledge into the future; Migizi Inini, the Eagle Man who watches that people follow the teachings; and Mishibizhew, the water panther who protects the Great Lakes. The park's Ojibwe name, ezhibiigadek asin, means written on stone.

Settlers found the carvings after the great Thumb fire of 1881, the state park protects a 240-acre woods around them, and since a December 2019 memorandum of understanding the park has been co-managed with the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan, the first such arrangement in the state park system. The fragile sandstone is under real threat: vandalism struck in 2017, millimeter-accurate lidar documentation was made in 2018, and the stone may not survive another century of weathering without further protection.

Visiting

Sanilac Petroglyphs Historic State Park (8251 Germania Rd, Cass City MI) is free, year round, with the protective viewing enclosure open seasonally (roughly Memorial Day to Labor Day) on guided tours; the 1.5-mile Cass River trail loops the park.

Photo: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sanilac_petroglyphs_1.jpg), CC BY-SA 4.0, Drdpw.