The Legend & the Hermit of Little Girls Point: Gogebic County, Mi

There's a place in the outermost reaches of the western half of the Upper Peninsula that has been called “Little Girls' Point” for approximately 150 years.

Named for someone's daughters? Nope. It was named after either a hallucination or an apparition.

In the Henry R. Schoolcraft Leelanau, or the Lost Daughter, and (Chippewa) Tale the young girl Leelanau loved walking the shoreline and waters of Lake Superior, looking out as far as she could see...her view ended at a tiny peninsula that jutted out into the water...a place that is now known as 'Little Girls Point'. The forest of pine trees that lined the shoreline heading toward the point was called 'Sacred Grove' by Leelanau. Sacred Grove was the mystical place where the “Little Men of the Woods” lived. It was believed by the Chippewas that these little men held special powers, and they would leave little offerings for them which included meat or tobacco.

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It was on one particular trip to the Sacred Grove of which Leelanau would never return. Upon entering the grove, she leaned against a tree and spoke, “Spirit of the green wood plume, shed around thy leaf perfume such as spring from buds of gold which thy tiny hands unfold.” To which the rustling of the leaves answered, “Maiden, think me not a tree, but thine own dear lover free; tall and youthful in my bloom, with the bright green nodding plume.”

Even though Leelanau's parents had chose a husband for her, she never returned. A search was conducted, but to no avail.

Some time later, a group of fishermen were returning home when they canoed by Sacred Grove. They saw the figure of a young girl standing at the point so they rushed to see if she was lost. The closer they got, the more she seemed to disappear into the forest. The fishermen believed she was dressed in green and was accompanied by a young boy.....with a green plume in his hair.

That's the legend.

Now some reality: George Triplett came to Little Girl's Point in 1892 and became known as the local hermit, even though he had a farm and a family of eight kids. Triplett grew potatoes for a living and once his kids were of age, they one-by-one moved out, forcing George to find other things to do with his time. In 1911 he began prospecting at Little Girls Point, a place where no mining company wanted to touch, believing it would be a waste of time. Because of his prospecting, a legend grew that there was a treasure buried at Little Girls Point that was left by either the Incas or Mayans. The natives supposedly came up the Mississippi to Lake Superior and buried the treasure.

Triplett became a local legend and was known by almost everyone in the Upper Peninsula and parts of Wisconsin. He passed away in the early 1950s at the age of 102. There are a couple of old photos of George included in the gallery below...