Inland Water Route Historical Museum
The history Northern Michigan’s Inland Water Route is preserved at the Inland Water Route Historical Museum in Alanson.
Photo by National Shrine of the Cross in the Woods
What began as an idea for a place of outdoor worship in the 1940’s turned into a project that now brings visitors to Indian River from around in the world: The National Shrine of the Cross in the Woods. This stunning 55′ x 22′ redwood cross, cut from one redwood tree, with a 28′ tall bronze crucifix is located on Calvary Hill near an outdoor sanctuary.
The Cross in the Woods is a Northern Michigan destination that brings more than 300,000 people a year to Indian River. Named a shrine by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the beautifully landscaped complex near Burt Lake State Park includes the 250-seat Long House Chapel, 1,000 seat church, Holy stairs, and the shrines of Saint Francis, Our Lady of the Highway, St. Peregrine, and Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha.
The Doll Museum includes more than 525 dolls and mannequins dressed in the appropriate religious habits of Diocesan clergy and more than 217 religious orders of priests, sisters, and brothers of North and South America.
The seven-ton bronze crucifix on the Cross is the work of famed Michigan sculptor Marshall Fredericks who spent more than four years creating the sculpture. The Cross was erected in 1954 and the Corpus was added in 1959. The cost for the figure of Christ created by Fredericks was $50,000. Fredericks donated his time on the project.
The National Shrine of the Cross in the Woods is open daily with worship services Monday-Friday at 8:30 am and 12 pm, Saturday at 4:30 pm, and Sunday at 8:30 am and 10:30 am.
The National Shrine of the Cross in the Woods
7078 M-68, Indian River, MI, 49749
(231) 238-8973
The history Northern Michigan’s Inland Water Route is preserved at the Inland Water Route Historical Museum in Alanson.
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