Gravel Island is an island in Lake Michigan. It is located in Ellison Bay, in the town of Liberty Grove, Wisconsin. The Gravel Island National Wildlife Refuge is made up of Gravel Island, and nearby Spider Island. The island is uninhabited, and a botanist who visited in 1999 was unable to find any vascular plants on the island.Flora and Vegetation of the Grand Traverse Islands (Lake Michigan), Wisconsin and Michigan by Emmet J. Judziewicz, The Michigan Botanist, Volume 40, Number 4, October 2001, page 126
In 2022, a large number of dead Caspian terns were found on Gravel Island, which were part of a larger die-off on Lake Michigan islands due to avian influenza.Bird flu has killed nearly 1,500 threatened Caspian terns on Lake Michigan islands by Lester Graham, Michigan Radio, republished in GreatLakesNow, June 30, 2022 and 'Catastrophic' avian flu devastates endangered tern colonies in Door County by Paul A. Smith, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, republished at yahoo.com, July 1, 2022
Native American name A Native American name for the island is Mah-ko-me-ne-shine-me-nis or "Bear Island". A legend published in the early 1900s relates an incident four hundred years prior where a spirit bear was seen crossing the lake from the east shore. The Potawatomi beckoned him ashore. Since then they call the island Old Bear Cub island.The Wisconsin Archeologist, Volume 16, No. 4, page 144, section on "Place Names".
Climate
References
External links Gravel Island, Web-Map of Door County, Wisconsin