Michigan Creek starts at an elevation of 1,400 feet (427 m) and flows generally south for 4 miles (6.4 km) through the Coast Mountains on Vancouver Island, entering the Pacific Ocean within Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the Pachena Point Light Station, about 81 miles (130 km) west-northwest of Victoria and 8.5 miles (14 km) southeast of Bamfield, British Columbia. The watershed is an intensively logged temperate rainforest. The creek was named after the vessel Michigan, which wrecked here in 1893.

Michigan was a steam-powered lumber schooner of 566 tons, one of 225 known schooners similar to the Wapama that served the lumber trade and coastal freight along the Pacific coast between San Francisco and Puget Sound. She was built at Skamokawa, Washington, by Ludwig Mortensen for William M. Colwell and George L. Colwell, and had a lumber capacity of 400,000 board feet. On January 21, 1893, Michigan was heading north to Puget Sound when a strong northerly current along the Olympic Peninsula pushed her past the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Unaware of the error, the crew turned east and the vessel ran aground on the reefs and ledges of Vancouver Island. Sea conditions were relatively calm, and the 22 crew and 4 passengers managed to get ashore after daylight. The crew retrieved a boat from the wreck and crossed the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Neah Bay for help, a distance of 33 miles (53 km).

In August 1893, Mascotte was sent to salvage what remained of the wrecked Michigan. Built in Victoria, British Columbia, by Smith and Warner for James C. Prevost, she was fitted with a crane and heavy salvage machinery. While working to recover cargo and equipment from the sunken Michigan and riding at anchor in Pachena Bay, Mascotte caught fire and burned to the waterline. The crew escaped and hiked to the Cape Beale light station. Read more here and here. Explore more of Michigan Creek and Pacific Rim National Park Reserve here: