Hat Island is a small island on the eastern edge of the Beaver Island archipelago in Lake Michigan. It is about 10 acres (0.04 km²) in size and located in eastern St. James Township, Charlevoix County, Michigan. It became part of the Michigan Islands National Wildlife Refuge in 1943.
Like other islands in the Michigan Islands NWR, Hat Island was formed during the Wisconsin glaciation when a melting glacier randomly dumped a large quantity of boulders and gravel in a spot that became part of the lakebed. The island was selected for inclusion in the Michigan Islands NMWR because of its standing as a potential breeding ground for herring gulls and other fish-eating birds.
During World War 2 it was used as a practice bombing site by the US Navy.
Hat Island is roughly four-sided, with an SSE-pointing forepeak that is said to look like the upturned brim of a hat.
Famous quotes containing the words hat and/or island:
“Walk in this faithless grass with studious tread,
Lest mice, weasels, germane beasts, too soon
The tall hat and eyes, the fierce feet, for dead
Descry, and fix you prone in their revelling moon.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“We crossed a deep and wide bay which makes eastward north of Kineo, leaving an island on our left, and keeping to the eastern side of the lake. This way or that led to some Tomhegan or Socatarian stream, up which the Indian had hunted, and whither I longed to go. The last name, however, had a bogus sound, too much like sectarian for me, as if a missionary had tampered with it; but I knew that the Indians were very liberal. I think I should have inclined to the Tomhegan first.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)