Beaver Island is an island in Lake Michigan in the U.S. state of Michigan. At , it is the largest island in Lake Michigan and the third largest island in Michigan after Isle Royale and Drummond Island. The island is located approximately from the city of Charlevoix. Beaver Island had a total population of 616 at the 2020 census. Beaver Island is part of Charlevoix County.https://peterburn.com/the-2022-lake-michigan-vacation-beaver-island The 2022 Lake Michigan Vacation – Beaver Island

From 1848 to 1856, Beaver Island was home to a uniquely American political and religious experiment, a Mormon theocracy and monarchy ruled by King James Strang, who unsuccessfully challenged Brigham Young for the post-Joseph Smith leadership of Mormonism. Despite failing to gain a majority following, Strang remained the self-appointed leader of a Mormon splinter group, who were known colloquially as the Strangites to distinguish them from the much larger and mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After Strang's assassination in 1856, dispossessed Irish American fishermen from the County Donegal Gaeltacht returned, expelled the Strangites, and retook the island, which is now a popular vacation and tourist destination. Portions of the island and surrounding archipelago are protected as part of the Beaver Islands State Wildlife Research Area.

History

Prehistory

There are at least two stone circle sites located on Beaver Island. The main site, Beaver Island Sun Circle (site no: 20CX65) (aka Beaver Island Stone Circle, or Beaver Island Stonehenge), is an unusually symmetrical 397-foot diameter stone circle consisting of approximately 39 (up to 150) stones and boulders of various sizes, from 2 feet to 10 feet with a ground height of 6 inches to 4 feet, with some stones presenting the appearance of hand-carved symbols and incised lines, hieroglyphs or pictographs including: geometric shapes, Algonquian thunderbirds, bulls, feathers, human faces/heads, human figures, and early Celtic writing.Bussey, M. T. Beaver Island Stone Circle Rising Time and Again. Beaver Island Historical Society, 2015. An example of these face/head markings, the Carved Face Rock, is on display at the Mormon Print Shop Museum. The site is located on the northwestern side of the island bisected by Mrs Reddings Trail, south of Angeline's Bluff Lookout, near Peshawbestown, a historic Native American village. It is considered a sacred site by the Anishinaabemowin and Anishinaabe culture, as explained in 1990 by Frank Ettawageshik, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians (LTBBOI) Tribal Chairman.Dammann, Sara Gay. Beaver Island Celebrates History. Petoskey News-Review (Petoskey, Mich.), 13 Jul 1990, p. 12-13.

The site was discovered in 1985 by Dr. Terri Bussey,Weeks, George. Beaver Island Stonehenge Poses Great Lakes Mystery. Lansing State Journal (Lansing, Mich.), 20 Jun 1988, p. 3B. of the Grand Rapids Inter-Tribal Council, who would spend 32 summers researching and documenting the site. It was further investigated in 1988 at Bussey's request by Dr. Donald P. Heldman, Mackinac Island State Park Commission archaeologist, and Dr. Elizabeth B. Garland, Western Michigan University Anthropology professor. The stone circle construction date has been estimated to be approximately 1,000 years ago, possibly produced by the Mississippian people, and was possibly used by the Odawa Indigenous peoples as a solar and lunar medicine wheel calendar Schoonbeck, Patty, and Schoonbeck, Fred. What's Down There. Beaver Beacon (Beaver Island, Mich.), Aug-Sep 2014, p. 44. or for navigation. The site is astronomically aligned with the midsummer solstice, the center stone positioned under the North Star, and appears to chart constellations like the Big Dipper.Dammann, Sara Gay. Unusual Find Stirs Beaver Island Debate. Petoskey News-Review (Petoskey, Mich.), 14 Jul 1988, p. 42-44.

The validity of the site has been scrutinized and disputed since its discovery as being a misinterpreted common geological phenomenon, such as a random scattering of rocks or glacial deposits by other archeologists like Dr. Charles Cleland, Michigan State University Anthropology professor, and Dr. Christian Feest, Austrian ethnologist and ethnohistorian that specializes in the Native Americans of Eastern North America and the Northeastern United States.Murray, Dianne. Historian: Beaver Island Find Needs Study. Petoskey News-Review (Petoskey, Mich.), 21 Jul 1988, p. 1-2. The site has been protected/owned since 1988Rock Circle Damaged. Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Mich.), 10 Sep 1988, p. 4A. by the LTBBOI (Public Law: 103-324), and interpreted by the Amik Circle Society, a 501(c)3 organization (EIN: 81-3233690) originally formed in the 1990s and dedicated to understanding and protecting "the many stone circles, mounds and burial sites found in the Islands."

The island's second site discovered by M. T. Bussey in 2014, Fairy Stone Circle, is located on the northeastern side of the island bisected by East Side Drive, north of Mike Boyles Beach Road, and shows similar astronomical alignments as the Beaver Island Sun Circle.

Pre-colonial history Beaver Island was called "" by the Ojibwe, meaning "where the beavers live".

The Odawa, who speak a dialect of the Ojibwe language, lived on Beaver Island for at least 300 years prior to its settlement by more recent immigrants. The region of Lake Michigan that surrounds Beaver Island has an unenviable reputation in the long history of shipwrecks on the Great Lakes,William Ratigan (1977), Great Lakes Shipwrecks and Survivals, W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan. Pages 15-58. and a wreck within swimming distance of the island itself has been proposed as the possible last resting place of La Salle's missing 1679 flagship Le Griffon,Chris Kohl (2004), Shipwreck Tales of the Great Lakes, Seawolf Communications. Pages 42-49. which is widely considered the "Holy Grail" among Great Lakes shipwreck hunters.

The Odawa population on Beaver Island was so large that a fur trading post was established there in the late 1830s. Despite Federal legislation criminalizing the sale of alcohol to Native Americans, the former location of the trading post is still known, revealingly, as "Whiskey Point".Andrea Gutsche and Cindy Bisallion (1999), Mysterious Islands: Forgotten Tales of the Great Lakes, Lynx Images. Page 200.

The Mormon Kingdom

Although Beaver Island is known today mostly for its beaches, forests, recreational harbor and seclusion, previously it was the site of a unique Latter Day Saint kingdom.

The island's association with Mormonism began with the death of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. Most Latter Day Saints considered Brigham Young to be his successor, but many others followed James J. Strang, who argued his own claim using a letter that he said Smith had written and mailed to him. Strang founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite), claiming it was the sole legitimate continuation of the church that Joseph Smith founded. His group initially settled in Voree, Wisconsin Territory, in 1844, and established a community there that persists today as an unincorporated community within the town of Burlington, Wisconsin. Seeking refuge from religious persecution, Strang and his followers moved from Voree to Beaver Island in 1848.

At the time, unlike the Danish-American settlement on nearby Garden Island, Beaver Island was inhabited by mostly Irish Catholic immigrants. In particular they came from an Ulster Irish-speaking island (off the coast of County Donegal) called Arranmore ().

The Strangites flourished under their Prophet's rule and, due to the Island's strategic location, they became both an economic and political power in the region at the expense of nearby Mackinac Island. The Strangites also founded the town of St. James, which was named in honor of Strang. They constructed a road denominated "King's Highway" into the interior of the island that remains one of its primary thoroughfares. The Strangites cleared land; constructed cabins, farms and other improvements; and attempted to establish themselves permanently on the island.

In fact, Strang became powerful enough to force the "Gentiles", or non-Mormons, of Beaver Island to pay tithes to his church. "Gentiles" who refused were allegedly subjected to flogging or violently driven off their land claims.Edward Butts (2004), Outlaws of the Lakes: Bootlegging and Smuggling from Colonial Times to Prohibition, The Lynx Images. Pages 56-57.Miles Harvey (2020), The King of Confidence: A Tale of Utopian Dreamers, Frontier Schemers, True Believers, False Prophets, and the Murder of an American Monarch, Little, Brown and Company. Page 194. Nothing, however, would have been more infuriating to Irish Catholic immigrants, for whom the events of the Tithe War were still a recent memory, than having once more to pay tithes to a denomination other than their own.

Irish Americans on the island, who were not welcome in St. James, first moved to a new settlement around Cable Bay, on Beaver Island's southern tip. The Ojibwe and Odawa population, on the other hand, fled to nearby Garden Island, where they sided invariably with the Strangites' enemiesMiles Harvey (2020), The King of Confidence: A Tale of Utopian Dreamers, Frontier Schemers, True Believers, False Prophets, and the Murder of an American Monarch, Little, Brown and Company. Pages 193-194. to the point that Strang later alleged that the Indians had been, "armed and hunting me for my life."Miles Harvey (2020), The King of Confidence: A Tale of Utopian Dreamers, Frontier Schemers, True Believers, False Prophets, and the Murder of an American Monarch, Little, Brown and Company. Page 209.

After first decreeing eleven days before the election that, "every Gentile family must come to the harbor and be baptized into the Church of Zion or leave the island within ten days",Miles Harvey (2020), The King of Confidence: A Tale of Utopian Dreamers, Frontier Schemers, True Believers, False Prophets, and the Murder of an American Monarch, Little, Brown and Company. Pages 208-209. Strang was unanimously elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in 1853 and again in 1855. He founded the first newspaper in Northern Michigan, the Northern Islander. During his tenure in the State Legislature, he made the island the center of the new County of Manitou, which included the Beaver Islands, Fox Islands and North Manitou and South Manitou Islands, and set the county seat at St. James in Beaver Island. The State of Michigan, however, abolished Manitou County in 1895 (see below).

After meeting and falling in love with 17-year-old Elvira Field during a mission trip in 1849, Strang declared that God had commanded him to become a polygamist,Andrea Gutsche and Cindy Bisallion (1999), Mysterious Islands: Forgotten Tales of the Great Lakes, Lynx Images. Page 204. contrary to his previous opposition to polygamy.(August 12, 1847). Voree Herald as quoted in Fitzpatrick, Doyle C. (1970). The King Strang Story: A Vindication of James J, Strang, the Beaver Island Mormon King. National Heritage. , pp. 74–5. After allegedly eloping with Strang, Miss Field became the second of an ultimate five wives, by whom Strang fathered a total of fourteen children.