The Potawatomi Islands is the most common historic name given to the string of islands that delineate the transition from Green Bay to Lake Michigan, one of the
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...
. The archipelago is also termed the "Grand Traverse Islands".
The largest of the islands is
Washington Island, in Door County, Wisconsin. Washington Island accounts for 62% of the islands' combined surface area.
[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, pages 130 Others include
Plum Island,
Detroit Island,
Hog Island,
Pilot Island, and
Rock Island in Wisconsin and
Little Gull Island
Little Gull Island Light is a lighthouse on Little Gull Island, a small island in Long Island Sound, located approximately northeast of Great Gull Island. Both islands are located in the Town of Southold, in Suffolk County, New York, and lie ...
,
Summer Island,
Little Summer Island,
Poverty Island,
Rocky Island, and
St. Martin Island
St. Martin Island is located off the Garden Peninsula in Delta County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the southernmost island in Michigan that is part of a line of islands at the mouth of the bay of Green Bay and is part of the Niagara Esc ...
in Michigan.
The broader term "Green Bay Islands" is used when additional islands located to the southwest are included in the island group.
History
In the 19th century, a fishing industry was centered around the Potowatomi Islands. Areas where fishing was most active were termed fishing grounds, and were termed the Sack Bay, Summer Island, St. Martin Island, and Washington Island grounds. During the peak of the industry in the 1840s and 1850s, approximately 20 fishing families lived year-round on Summer Island and several more on Rock Island. Following the introduction of the steam tug in 1869 and also as the whitefish industry declined, most fishermen left the smaller islands. Those who continued to fish moved especially to Washington Island and harbors in Big and Little Bay de Noc. Switching from the sail-powered
sloop
A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...
to the steam tug expanded the fishermens' ranges and allowed them to live further from the fish they caught.
Municipalities
The Potawatomi Islands form the
Town of Washington in Door County, Wisconsin and part of
Fairbanks Township in Delta County, Michigan.
See also
*
Lake Michigan § Islands
*
Door Peninsula § Reefs and shoals in Door County waters
Peninsulas
*
Garden Peninsula
The Garden Peninsula is a peninsula of in length that extends southwestward into Lake Michigan from the mainland of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The peninsula is bordered by Lake Michigan on the east, and by Big Bay de Noc on the west. The base ...
(to the north)
*
Door Peninsula (to the south)
Nearby and adjacent waters
*
Porte des Morts south of the islands
*
Big Bay de Noc
Big Bay de Noc is a bay in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The bay, which opens into Lake Michigan's Green Bay, is enclosed by Delta County. The Garden Peninsula is on the east side of the bay and the Stonington Peninsula is ...
*
Little Bay de Noc
*
Green Bay (Lake Michigan)
Green Bay is an arm of Lake Michigan, located along the south coast of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and the east coast of Wisconsin. It is separated from the rest of the lake by the Door Peninsula in Wisconsin, the Garden Peninsula in Michigan, an ...
Counties
*
Delta County, Michigan (to the north)
*
Door County, Wisconsin (to the south)
Protected areas
*
Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge
*
Rock Island State Park
*
Gravel Island National Wildlife Refuge
*Shingleton Forest Management Unit, 1,488 acres on Big Summer and Little Summer Islands
Compartment Review Presentation Shingleton Forest Management Unit
Michigan Department of Natural Resources, 2015
History
*Wisconsin v. Michigan
Two Supreme Court cases, ''Wisconsin v. Michigan'', 295 U.S. 455 (1935) and ''Wisconsin v. Michigan'', 297 U.S. 547 (1936), settled a territorial dispute between Wisconsin and Michigan.
Background
The 1836 boundary description between Wiscons ...
, a 1936 dispute involving which state or states the Potawatomi Islands belong to; this was decided by the Supreme Court
Notes
External links
Friends of the Grand Traverse Islands
Friends of Plum and Pilot Islands
Summer Islands Management Area
''Michigan Department of Natural Resources''
Islands of Delta County, Michigan
Islands of Lake Michigan in Michigan
Islands of Door County, Wisconsin
Islands of Lake Michigan in Wisconsin
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