Garden Island is an uninhabited 4,990 acre (20 km²) island located in the Beaver Island archipelago in northern Lake Michigan. It is almost wholly owned by the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

and is overseen by the

Michigan Department of Natural Resources The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is the agency of the state of Michigan charged with maintaining natural resources such as state parks, state forests, and recreation areas. It is governed by a director appointed by the Governor a ...

(DNR) as part of the

Beaver Islands State Wildlife Research Area The Beaver Islands State Wildlife Research Area is a networked set of insular properties of the U.S. state of Michigan. The Research Area is approximately 23,154 acres in size. Properties in the Research Area include much of the southern half ...

. It is accessible by private boat. The Native American (

Ojibwe language Ojibwe , also known as Ojibwa , Ojibway, Otchipwe,R. R. Bishop Baraga, 1878''A Theoretical and Practical Grammar of the Otchipwe Language''/ref> Ojibwemowin, or Anishinaabemowin, is an indigenous language of North America of the Algonquian lan ...

) name for the island is ''Minis Gitigaan'', which has become ''Garden Island'' by direct translation. The Island's Native American cemetery was listed in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in March 1978.

History

Garden Island's maximum length, from northwest to southeast, is approximately five miles (8 km). Currently, the island is not inhabited on a year-round basis; historically, this island was the home of many

Anishinaabe The Anishinaabeg (adjectival: Anishinaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples present in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe (including Saulteaux and Oji-Cree), Odawa, Potawat ...

. Some of these native Islanders lived on the island year-round, and others lived there during the warmer months. An increasing number of Anishinaabe from the mainland and Beaver Island owned farms on the ''Garden Island'' after the treaties of 1836 and 1847, planting corn and

squash Squash may refer to: Sports * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling * Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...

. Other Anishinaabe worked as

fishermen A fisher or fisherman is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishers may be professional or recreati ...

. This Native settlement shrank during the early 1900s as most of its members moved away. Much of the land reverted to the state of

as a result of the nonpayment of

property tax A property tax or millage rate is an ad valorem tax on the value of a property.In the OECD classification scheme, tax on property includes "taxes on immovable property or net wealth, taxes on the change of ownership of property through inhe ...

es. The state never properly explained property tax law to the islanders. Other patches of land were abandoned. The last Garden Island resident, Peter Monatou, died in the 1940s. Most of the

old-growth An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological feature ...

timber on Garden Island was cut and sawn by a short-lived

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

that operated on the island in 1912-1913. A small town, now a true ghost town, was built near the mill and named "Success", Michigan. In 1978, Garden Island was the location for the climax of a Girl Scout Wider Opportunity called Scouts on Survival'78. 48 Senior Girl Scouts ages 15 –18 were brought to Michigan State University to study survival techniques. After two weeks of classes, the girls spent a week at Rose Lake Park practicing their new skills, and then a week on Garden Island. On Garden Island, they were placed in groups of 8. Each girl had only a knife, flint and steel, and a space blanket. The girls survived by building lean-tos, setting snares, fishing with handmade fishing hooks and twine, and foraging for wild plants.

Terrain

Garden Island is surrounded by relatively cool, shallow water, making the area ideal for sport and commercial

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

. The island itself is relatively low and spotted with many

pond A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or artificial, that is smaller than a lake. Defining them to be less than in area, less than deep, and with less than 30% emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing their ecology from ...

s and

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

s. The island is well known as a place of endangered and rare herbs and wetland plants.

Religion

Although the island is currently uninhabited year-round, a Native

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

on the island, the Garden Island Indian Cemetery, continues in active use and contains more than 3,500 burials, most of them unmarked. The cemetery is notable for a number of "spirit houses" marking burial sites. The cemetery land is owned by a nonprofit organization that keeps the site protected and open to all native peoples.

Notable residents

Keewaydinoquay Peschel Keewaydinoquay Pakawakuk Peschel (1919 – July 21,1999) was a scholar, ethnobotanist, herbalist, medicine woman, teacher and author. She claimed she was an Anishinaabeg Elder of the Crane Clan. She was born in Michigan around 1919 and spent tim ...

Gallery

References

{{authority control Protected areas of Charlevoix County, Michigan Uninhabited islands of Michigan Islands of Lake Michigan in Michigan Islands of Charlevoix County, Michigan Anishinaabe communities in the United States