Marquette Island is the largest of the 36 islands in the Les Cheneaux archipelago of northern Michigan, United States. Located in Mackinac County on the north shore of Lake Huron, the island has a small summer population. It is 6.5 miles (10.5 km) long and 3.5 miles (5.5 km) wide. Its geographic center is close to 45 degrees 57 minutes N., 84 degrees 23 minutes W.
A narrow, freshwater sound, the Les Cheneaux Channel, separates Marquette Island from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The channel shore of Marquette Island is lined with Edwardian boathouses and cottages, relics of the island's development as real estate in the early 1900s. At its most narrow, the channel is less than 0.25 miles (0.4 km) in width. The island's summer inhabitants often travel by water to the nearby towns of Cedarville and Hessel for the necessities of life. The Les Cheneaux Yacht Club, a social center of the islands, is located on Marquette Island.
Although Marquette Island is large, it is not as expansive as its overall dimensions might suggest, because it is deeply gouged by freshwater bays such as Duck Bay, Hessel Bay, Peck Bay, and Wilderness Bay. There are no bridges or other means of automobile access to the island, and no roads on the island. Because of this, most island landowners own some sort of water frontage or dock access. The waters adjacent to Marquette Island are noted for freshwater fishing, particularly for lake perch. The island is named in honor of missionary/explorer Jacques Marquette.
Read more about Marquette Island: Home of Chief Shabwaway
Famous quotes containing the word island:
“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)