During the mid 1800s, sailing ships of all sizes carried lumber, iron ore, and copper from Michigan's forests and Upper Peninsula mines to growing Midwestern cities, but after leaving the protected waters of the St. Clair River at Port Huron, schooners reaching Saginaw Bay were often turned back by prevailing westerly winds and storms and had to sail more than 80 miles back to the river to find shelter. After many shipwrecks in the Upper Thumb area, the federal government selected Sand Beach in 1871 as the best site for a new harbor of refuge; in 1899, Sand Beach was renamed Harbor Beach. Construction of the breakwall began in 1873 with ten wood cribs, each 38 feet wide and 65 feet long, built on shore, towed into place, and sunk with stone gathered by local residents from the shore and farm fields, then topped with a heavy timber superstructure. Work continued for 11 years until the breakwall was completed, but storms repeatedly damaged the wooden superstructure, leading to costly yearly repairs. In 1904, the wood was removed and replaced with huge concrete blocks and a poured concrete superstructure. The Harbor Beach Harbor of Refuge is about 1 mile wide and 3 miles long, enclosing about 650 acres. The Detroit & Cleveland Steamship Company later operated the passenger ships City of Mackinaw and City of Alpena between Detroit and Mackinaw City with scheduled stops at Harbor Beach, carrying passengers, freight, and livestock. In 1987, a fall storm damaged the main breakwall when waves caused a section several hundred feet long to collapse into the harbor, and repairs added large boulders along the breach and stone protection along both the harbor and lake sides of the entire breakwall. Between 1877 and 1899, 47,460 ships sought shelter there.