Marquette Island (french: Île Marquette) is the largest of the 36 islands in the Les Cheneaux archipelago of northern

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, United States. Located in

Mackinac County Mackinac County ( ) is a County (United States), county in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 Census, the population was 10,834. The county seat is St. Ignace, Michigan, St. Ignace. Forme ...

on the north shore of

Lake Huron Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrology, Hydrologically, it comprises the easterly portion of Lake Michigan–Huron, having the same surface elevation as Lake Michigan, to which it is connected by the , Strait ...

, 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.

Description

A narrow, freshwater sound, the Les Cheneaux Channel, separates Marquette Island from the

Upper Peninsula The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by t ...

of Michigan. The channel shore of Marquette Island is lined with Edwardian

boathouse A boathouse (or a boat house) is a building especially designed for the storage of boats, normally smaller craft for sports or leisure use. describing the facilities These are typically located on open water, such as on a river. Often the boats ...

s and

cottage A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a Cotter (farmer), cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager ...

s, 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 The Hessel is a , right tributary of the River Ems in the territory of the North Rhine-Westphalian districts of Gütersloh and Warendorf in northwest Germany. The river rises northwest of Halle (Westf.) on the Große Egge, crosses the Herma ...

for the necessities of life. The Les Cheneaux Yacht Club, a social center of the islands, is located on Marquette Island."Les Cheneaux Islands", Hunt's Guide, accessed December 1, 2007
/ref>"Les Cheneaux Yacht Club History", Les Cheneaux Yacht Club, accessed December 1, 2007. 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 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 ...

, particularly for lake perch. The island is named in honor of missionary/explorer

Jacques Marquette Jacques Marquette S.J. (June 1, 1637 – May 18, 1675), sometimes known as Père Marquette or James Marquette, was a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Sainte Marie, and later founded Saint Igna ...

Chief Shabwaway

Marquette Island was the home of Chief Shab-wa-way, whose homesite was located directly south across the channel from the present site of the Les Cheneaux Club golf course. A plaque was placed on this location by the Les Cheneaux Historical Association in 1982. The plaque describes the significance of this site as follows: "On this spot stood the log cabin of Chabowaway (sometimes called 'Shab-wa-way' or 'Shabway'), a leading chief of the Ottawa Indians. Here he and his ancestors lived for over a century and in this cabin he died about the year 1872 at the age, it is said, of over 100 years. March 28th, 1836, he represented his tribe and signed the Indian Treaty at Washington, D.C., ceding most of northern Michigan to the United States but reserving for himself and for his people 'the Islands of the chenos' (Indian Treaties, Ed. of 1873, Vol. 1, p. 607). He was succeeded by his son 'Pay-Baw-Me-Say' who took his father's name and who also died in this cabin, about the year 1882. Soon thereafter the cabin was burned by a company of hunters." LeopoldMarker

Preservation

Between 1883 and 1887, the property on Club Point (the northernmost peninsula of Marquette Island) passed from the heirs of Shab-wa-way, through several temporary owners into the ownership of William L. Benham who purchased Club Point in 1888. Benham, Alfred E. Bousfield, and other investors, mostly from Bay City, MI, formed the Les Cheneaux Club, which attracted summer cottagers seeking to escape the heat and humidity of Chicago and other midwestern cities. The Club grounds contain a number of large summer homes which remain the most conspicuous feature of Marquette Island. Among the early members of the Club was the family of

Aldo Leopold Aldo Leopold (January 11, 1887 – April 21, 1948) was an American writer, philosopher, naturalist, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and is best known for his ...

, who spent his childhood summers in the woods and waters of the Les Cheneaux Islands.Weiss, Les Cheneaux Club One Hundred Years, Cedarville, MI (1992) Five separate parcels of Island property have been dedicated as nature preserves. In 2022 the newest such parcel, the 130-acre Kathy Bricker Nature Lover Preserve, was set aside. The new Preserve is a land parcel adjacent to the 1,683-acre Aldo Leopold Nature Preserve, the largest conservancy parcel on the Island. Both parcels are overseen by the Little Traverse Conservancy, a Northern Michigan private-sector land conservancy group.

References

{{authority control Islands of Mackinac County, Michigan Islands of Lake Huron in Michigan