Gravel Island is an island in
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...
. It is located in
Ellison Bay, in the town of
Liberty Grove, Wisconsin. The
Gravel Island National Wildlife Refuge is made up of Gravel Island, and nearby
Spider Island
{{Infobox islands
, image_map =
, mapsize =
, map_caption =
, image_map1 =
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, pushpin_map = Wisconsin#USA
, name = Spider Island
, image_name = 1987 Spider Island Door County Wisconsin.jpg
...
. The island is uninhabited, and a botanist who visited in 1999 was unable to find any
vascular plant
Vascular plants (), also called tracheophytes () or collectively Tracheophyta (), form a large group of land plants ( accepted known species) that have lignified tissues (the xylem) for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant. They al ...
s on the island.
[Flora and Vegetation of the Grand Traverse Islands (Lake Michigan), Wisconsin and Michigan]
by Emmet J. Judziewicz, ''The Michigan Botanist'', Volume 40, Number 4, October 2001, page 126
In 2022, a large number of dead Caspian terns were found on Gravel Island, which were part of a larger die-off on Lake Michigan islands due to
avian influenza.
Native American name
A Native American name for the island is Mah-ko-me-ne-shine-me-nis or "Bear Island". A legend published in the early 1900s relates an incident four hundred years prior where a spirit bear was seen crossing the lake from the east shore. The Potawatomi beckoned him ashore. Since then they call the island Old Bear Cub island.
The Wisconsin Archeologist, Volume 16, No. 4, page 144
section on "Place Names".
Climate
References
External links
Web-Map of Door County, Wisconsin
Islands of Door County, Wisconsin
Lake islands of Wisconsin
Islands of Lake Michigan in Wisconsin
Uninhabited islands of Wisconsin
{{DoorCountyWI-geo-stub