BEAVER ISLAND, Charlevoix County
Hidden in the Beaver Islands Archipelago in the far northeastern end of Lake Michigan, are old French and Mormon colonies, now long forgotten. Big Beaver Island was the headquarters for French trappers and hunters long before the first permanent settlement was established around 1603, but this settlement later disappeared without a trace. In 1847, a Mormon colony was founded near present-day St. James. That colony eventually closed and its site burned.
Hidden in the Beaver Islands Archipelago in the far northeastern end of Lake Michigan, are old French and Mormon colonies, now long forgotten. Big Beaver Island was the headquarters for French trappers and hunters long before the first permanent settlement was established around 1603, but this settlement later disappeared without a trace. In 1847, a Mormon colony was founded near present-day St. James. That colony eventually closed and its site burned.