North Canal Park

North Canal Park features two beach areas, one along Lake Superior and the other inside the west breakwater rock wall along the Portage Canal.

Park Information

Many visit this stamp sand beach for beach walking, swimming, picnicking, and also for sightseeing. It is also a popular destination for sunsets and northern lights over western Lake Superior.

The gravel entrance road to the Park is located at the end of the (Houghton) Canal Road, near the north entry of the Keweenaw Waterway (or Portage Canal) to Lake Superior. The Park area contains an approximately 15-acre parcel of land shoreward of the west breakwater into Lake Superior. This parcel is owned by the U.S. government, managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and has been leased to Stanton Township on a 25-year basis for public recreational access.

The darker-color “stamp sands” at the Park are composed of crushed rock and slag from historical copper stamp mill operations along the Lake Superior shoreline southwest of the North Entry (at Redridge, Edgemere, Beacon Hill, and Freda). The stamp sands have been deposited in the vicinity of the North Entry breakwaters by the northerly long-shore lake currents along the western shore of the Keweenaw Peninsula.