Big Bay, MI

Big Bay sits near the shore of its namesake on Lake Superior, within Powell Township in northern Marquette County. The community was established in 1875 by people involved in the lumber industry, and Lake Independence occupies the southern part of the CDP. Marquette is 28 miles southeast, but Big Bay faces the lake and the Upper Peninsula woods more directly than the county seat. Its setting is a working shoreline with a distinct sense of distance. That is plenty of local lore.

Big Bay’s most famous chapter arrived when Otto Preminger filmed Anatomy of a Murder here in 1959. Scenes used the Thunder Bay Inn and other local places, while the Lumberjack Tavern was tied to the 1952 murder that inspired the book and movie. The film put Big Bay on a much larger cultural map, but the local texture remains the same mix of lumber history, lake country, town businesses, and the landmarks that became part of a courtroom story on screen.