Quicksand swallows man at Michigan beach near harbor dredging

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Man Sinks in Quicksand and Emerges With a Girlfriend

A Michigan man who ended up waist-deep on an unstable beach was rescued, and found himself in a relationship.


“I knew not to panic. I have to be a macho man,” Mitchell O’Brien said of his mind-set while trapped in the sand. Breanne Sika

By Victor Mather
April 18, 2025

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ENVIRONMENT
Quicksand swallows man at Michigan beach near harbor dredging

Updated: Apr. 18, 2025, 2:08 a.m. | Published: Apr. 17, 2025, 12:16 p.m.


Mitchell O'Brien of Interlochen was rescued from quicksand near dredging outwash at Reynolds Street Beach in Leland, Mich., April 12, 2025. (Courtesy | Mitch O'Brien, Breanne Sika) Breanne Sika

By Garret Ellison | [e-mail]

LELAND, MI — It was a date they’ll never forget. … Mitchell O’Brien and Breanne Sika were hunting for Leland blue stones and planning to catch the sunset over Lake Michigan when the beach tried to eat O’Brien for dinner.

One moment, O’Brien was walking normally on hard wet sand at the waterline. The next, he was sunk up to his waistline. … “Man, I was stuck, stuck — like, my left leg, I couldn’t move it. It’s like there was something holding it underground. It was crazy how hard it was there,” O’Brien said.

Sika and O’Brien — co-workers at the 217 Recovery Center clinic in Traverse City who were kinda-maybe dating before they were forced to call 911 together — definitely found more than they bargained for at Reynolds Street Beach on Saturday, April 12. … Their predicament drew news attention and social media gawkers this week after photos circulated online showing O’Brien stuck waist-deep in the shoreline.

The two were hunting for a special blue slag that washes up on the Leland shoreline when they encountered a large pipe snaking across the beach, spewing slurry from a hydraulic dredge that was vacuuming sand from the harbor bottom.

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