Tawas Bay is one of the few naturally sheltered bays along the long open Lake Huron shore between Saginaw Bay and the Straits. The protection it provides has shaped the local economy, the marina infrastructure, and the relationship between water levels and property risk here. I am Chris Izworski. I live in Bay City, I fish the AuSable River north of here several times a year, and I treat the Tawas area as part of my regular regional knowledge. This page is the orientation I use when I need to think clearly about water levels at East Tawas, Tawas City, and the Tawas Point shoreline.
Tawas Bay exists because of Tawas Point, the recurved sand spit that hooks south and then east from the shore, sheltering the bay from the dominant northwest wind direction. Without Tawas Point, this stretch of coast would be open and unprotected. Because of it, Tawas Bay enjoys some of the calmest summer water conditions on the entire Sunrise Coast and supports a much larger boating and marina economy than its open-coast neighbors at Au Gres, Oscoda, or Harrisville. The point itself is dynamic. It has migrated east and grown in length over the last century. High water cycles tend to erode the point and rebuild it slightly farther inland. Low water cycles tend to expand the point and add sand to its outer face. The Tawas Point Lighthouse and the surrounding state park have managed several decades of this slow migration.
At ordinary Lake Huron levels, the East Tawas shoreline has a generous swimming beach, the public pier at East Tawas City Park is well above water, and the Tawas City marina has full functional depth at every slip. At one foot above mean, the swimming beach narrows noticeably and the lowest finger piers at the marina take occasional wave wash from southeast blows that come around the point. At two feet above mean, as the 2019 to 2020 cycle delivered, the East Tawas City Park beach contracted to a strip and Tawas Point itself took several feet of erosion on its outer face. At one foot below mean, the marina has full depth, the beach is wide, and Tawas Point grows.
The opposite extreme matters too. At two feet below mean, as the 2012 to 2013 cycle delivered, several marina slips on the Tawas Bay west side had insufficient depth for vessels with draft over four feet. The shallow shelves on the west side of the bay became exposed mud flats. The 2013 low stand was a real operational problem for the local charter fleet.
Twelve miles north of East Tawas, the AuSable River discharges into Lake Huron at Oscoda. The AuSable is the river I fish most often, particularly the Holy Waters above Mio. The mouth at Oscoda is a separate place from Tawas Bay hydrologically, but it matters for the regional water level picture because the AuSable carries the largest freshwater discharge into Lake Huron between the Saginaw and the Cheboygan. River discharge does not significantly affect lake level. Lake level very significantly affects the river mouth. In high water years the AuSable backs up at Oscoda and the harbor at Foote Pond Dam tailwater changes character. In low water years the AuSable bar at the mouth expands and changes the navigation channel.
Tawas Bay does not have its own NOAA water level gauge. The closest operational stations are Alpena to the north and Harbor Beach to the south. For practical purposes the right reference for Tawas Bay property owners is the Harbor Beach gauge, station 9075014, which captures the same open Lake Huron stage that propagates into Tawas Bay through the gap east of Tawas Point. Storm surge events at Tawas Bay are typically smaller than at Harbor Beach because the point absorbs and dissipates wave energy, but chart-level changes track closely.
Both the Tawas City and East Tawas municipal marinas have weathered the recent high and low cycles by progressive dock and ramp modifications rather than wholesale reconstruction. Private dock owners on the bay should plan their structures with three feet of vertical adjustability where possible, and should design pilings for the 1986 high water mark as a minimum design event. The cost difference between a dock built for chart level and a dock built for the historical envelope is small at construction time and very large after a high water cycle.
I cover the broader Sunrise Coast on the Sunrise Side page and the Lake Huron picture on the Lake Huron overview. Questions about Tawas Bay can come to Chris Izworski at chrisizworski.com.