Beaver Island (Lake Michigan) - "America's Emerald Isle"

"America's Emerald Isle"

Irish fishermen from Gull Island, Mackinac Island, various port cities on the mainland, and County Donegal in Ireland quickly replaced the Strangites on Beaver Island. Their community, increased by more Irish immigration, would develop a unique identity that was enhanced by the island's isolation from the mainland. Church services and even ordinary conversations were conducted in Gaelic for many years. By the mid-1880s, Beaver Island had become the largest supplier of fresh-water fish consumed in the United States, but overfishing and changes in technology brought this bonanza to an end by the beginning of the 20th century.

In addition to its murdered "king," Beaver Island would later become the home of two other persons who proved locally noteworthy. Father Peter Gallagher, priest from 1865 to 1898, was a colorful and charismatic leader, dominating island life and even getting into a fistfight with one of his parishioners in the island chapel. Feodor Protar, who arrived in 1893, was a disciple of Russian author and pacifist Leo Tolstoy. He served as a local doctor and friend-to-all while living as a recluse in a cabin in the island's interior. Protar died in 1925, leaving many admirers who would treasure his memory for decades to come.

Logging, always an important part of the island economy, expanded greatly with the formation of the Beaver Island Logging Company in 1901. Docks, housing, railroads and a mill transformed local scenery for a time, but fishing still remained the main concern. A steep decline in the fish population in the 1940s led to the exodus of most of the island's residents, until tourism in the 1970s brought renewed interest in Beaver. Today the island has become a popular vacation destination for people all over the Great Lakes area.