Beaver Island Historical Society Welcomes You to Our Past
The Beaver Island Historical Society was founded in 1957 to collect and share the fascinating history of Beaver Island. A remote island in Lake Michigan, it has witnessed many interesting and unique historical events, and has been home to various groups including Native Americans, a Mormon branch known as the Strangites, Irish immigrants, fisherman, lumberjacks, and many more.
King Strang
The Historical Society currently operates two museums on the Island, the Print Shop Museum and the Marine Museum, as well as two additional historical sites: Heritage Park and the Protar Home. We offer several resources and services to our visitors, including genealogical research, copies of archival photos, and a series of historical journals and other books for purchase. Additionally, we host many events throughout the year to promote the Island’s history.
Explore our history, find out about the king, fishing, shipwrecks, island life, natural history, our Irish heritage, and much more.
For an overview of Beaver Island History please visit: http://www.beaverisland.net/beaver-island-history
2019 Schedule and Brochure
Museum Hours
The Print Shop is closed until May.
The Marine Museum can be toured until Nov 15 by appointment.
In the spring: May 1 - June 20 by appointment.
Museums will open for regular hours on June 21, 2020 through September 30, 2020.
Please call 231.448.2254 for more information.
Self Guided Walking Tour
Construction Update
The Board of Trustees is pleased to announce that a legacy benefactor, George Bisbee of Jackson MI, provided the Society just over $500,000, which will be used for financing the Print Shop Addition, including some of the exhibits. The Board is also grateful to the many Island benefactors who have supported the expansion concept and contributed to the capital campaign already and to those future benefactors who will continue to support the Society in fulfilling the vision to share the unique historical stories of the Archipelago through the renovated and expanded museum.
Architectural services are being provided pro-bono by Ebersoldt + Associates Architects, and its owner, Vince Ebersoldt, a long-time Island visitor, Island property owner and benefactor, as well as a BIHS Trustee. The Board of Trustees are extremely grateful to Vince and his team for the work they are doing on behalf of the Society, helping to keep Island History Alive!
Read more...
From Our Facebook Page
View the most recent updates at https://www.facebook.com/BeaverIslandHistoricalSociety/
On this Veterans Day honoring the service of all US military veterans, a circa-1945 image of a monument listing Beaver Islanders who served in World War II. Though unverified, it has been claimed that per capita, or relative to the size of the community, the island sent more servicemen into WWII than most communities in the nation.
Of the servicemen listed on the pictured monument, three were killed during the war: Emmett Burke, Hubert Green, and Edward Wojan. For reasons unknown, two other island servicemen killed in WW II, Robert Belfy and James Francis Neer, are not listed there.
(Photo from the collection of the family of Daniel "Archie" LaFreniere, 1912-1996; Technician, US Navy, WW II, Philippines).
Listed on the monument in alphabetical order:
Albert Antwine
Erwin Belfy
Patrick Boyle
Emmett Burke
Robert Burke
Jack Burke
Jack Connaghan
Betty Cull
Raymond Cull
Harvey Cornstalk
James Elms
John Gallagher
Edward Gallagher
Leo Gallagher
James Gallagher
Earl Gallagher
Frank Gallagher
Daniel Gallagher
Peter Gallagher
Norman Gallagher
Hubert Green
Daniel Green
Corneil Gatliff
Daniel Gatliff
Robert Gatliff
Edward Gillespie
Fred Korthese
Archie LaFreniere
Joseph LaFreniere
Arthur Lewis
Robert Malloy
Robert Martin
Roland McCann
James McCafferty
Bernard McCafferty
Francis McCafferty
Francis McDonough
Robert McDonough
Alred McCann
Daniel McGinnis
Robert McCann
Bernard O'Donnell
Francis O'Donnell
William O'Donnell
Charles Pischner
Joseph Ricksgers
Henry Ricksgers
Alfred Ricksgers
Raymond Smith
George Van Erkle
Edward Wojan
Walter Wojan
Enos Washegeshik
Archie Washegesick
Charles Wabaninke
Theodore Wojan
Several years ago,I made this Honor Roll for a 4th of July float. I would love to do it again.
Does anyone know where the original sign is or was? This is so cool
There's my Dad... oh thank you for this remembrance!
Emmett Burke was my late mother-in-law’s (Ada Burke) brother. May he and all of the others RIP. His Purple Heart hung on her living room wall for years.
From McDonough Construction crew member Brian Cole, an update with pics on the Print Shop addition project:
"The weather permitted us to finish the slab at the Print Shop on Tuesday and we put the last of Dick Burris in the section of the floor that the Beaver Archipelago will be etched into... Definitely fitting for a man that loved these islands and explored them on land and diving around them all his life. Every time you walk in and look at that etching you can think of him and smile. A beautiful sunset to end the day tied everything together."
Thank you all so much. A heart warming tribute to my grandpa!
As autumn transitions into winter, it's time to begin our annual Membership Drive for 2020. This past year about 250 people who love Beaver Island and its history joined the Historical Society family as members. The BIHS Board gives our deepest thanks and appreciation for your support as we move forward toward achieving our Vision Statement: “The Society will share the unique historical stories of the archipelago through its renovated and expanded museums."
In pursuit of that vision, BIHS is actively progressing on several fronts for the coming year. We will complete the new addition to the Mormon Print Shop, adding much-needed space for new and compelling exhibits as well as an expanded archival processing and storage area; install in the new addition the iconic, fully restored Depression-era mural 'Bringing in the Net'; increase public access to the locally-beloved and tourist-popular Protar House; and join with Charlevoix County in vital maintenance and preservation projects at the Beaver Head Lighthouse. Along with those initiatives we'll continue to share all of our regular offerings, including the operation of the Print Shop and Marine Museums, extensive Museum Week programs and events, the weekly Picnic at the Point presentations, publication of an updated edition of the Beaver Island Cookbook, and much more.
Your membership and support is vital in all these endeavors as we move into a new era of increased activity and enhanced cultural value to the local community, many thousands of seasonal visitors, and history buffs everywhere fascinated by the distinct layers of Native, French, Mormon, Irish, and natural history our beautiful archipelago holds.
Our membership year runs from January 1 to December 31. Benefits include: 10% discount on gift shop items, 20% discount on genealogy research, and a complimentary copy of George Anthony's book on the 19th and 20th century Native history of the archipelago, 'The Elders Speak'. To renew your membership or become a new member, please visit www.beaverislandhistory.org/membership/. Please share this post with your friends, and thanks for your support!
Membership in Beaver Island Historical Society
www.beaverislandhistory.org
Beaver Island Historical Society Membership benefits- 10% discount on gift shop items, 20% on genealogy research, copy of A Beaver Island Scrapbook and moreMy grandparents started coming to Beaver Island in the mid 1960’s and bought two pieces of property and built our family cabin on Leonard Lane. I have been coming to Beaver Island my entire life (41 years). I’m really excited to become a member of the Beaver Island Historical Society! Such an amazing thing to preserve❤️
Inscribed "Main Street High Island 1900 +", this picture was likely taken between 1912-1927, during the island's occupation by a colony of the House of David religious sect based in Benton Harbor, Michigan. At it's peak, the lakeside village near High Island Bay on the island's northeast side held 120-150 Israelites, as they were called. Members ran timber-cutting and farming operations that supplied their extensive home base in Benton Harbor with building lumber and large amounts of root vegetables for the vegetarian congregation there.
Before, during, and after the House of David era, High Island was home to generations of native Odawa families, and supported a public school up until 1936. Today the island has returned to a densely forested state, showing few obvious signs of the once-active communities of fisherman, loggers, and farmers who had called it home.
Aaron Engel
Our dad went to school there, 1923.
Brent Pike
I had no idea that High Island was ever inhabited??
My grandmother lived there as a child with her family during early 1900’s
Wow
Mary Pischner
Dad was born and raised there.
Love this and love visiting High Island 😊
My Aunt Bernadette grew up there.
I landed there with Jewell Gillespie one lovely summers day in 1968. He was a mine of information on the island. I played slow airs on my bagpipes in honour of the departed
Where did all the buildings go?🎼
Some where there when we first started visiting. Little by little all reverted back to the earth. A few log cabins still have walls standing.
This week's Picnic at the Point on Wednesday, November 6 from 12-1 pm in the St. James Township Hall features BIHS Director Lori Taylor-Blitz presenting "Lost Photos", a showing of digitized vintage Beaver Island pictures from years past. This is the second-to-last program in the series for the year, so please bring a lunch and join us.
(Below, the old lagoon at Font Lake, circa 1951. Photo from the collection of D.J. Angus at Grand Valley State University Library)
I so wish I could be there. Are the photos on line or will they be?
Photography by Frank Solle / Stillpoint Photography