St. Martin Island is located off the

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 ...

in Delta County in 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 sover ...

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 ...

. 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 Escarpment The Niagara Escarpment is a long escarpment, or cuesta, in Canada and the United States that runs predominantly east–west from New York through Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, and into Illinois. The escarpment is most famous as the cliff over ...

.Pepper, Terry, Seeing the Light, St. Martin Island Lighthouse.
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National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

br> Maritime History Project, Michigan Lighthouses, Inventory of Historic Light Stations, St. Martin Island Light
/ref>

Geography

Gravelly Island, Gull Island, and Little Gull Island are approximately two miles to the north and east across the St. Martin Island Passage. Rock Island in Wisconsin is approximately six miles south-southwest, across the Rock Island Passage. It is from the Door County Peninsula.Lighthouse Friends, St. Martin Island Light.
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History

In 1864 the Peninsula Railroad was completed to connect

Escanaba, Michigan Escanaba ( ), commonly shortened to Esky, is a port city in Delta County in the U.S. state of Michigan, located on Little Bay de Noc in the state's Upper Peninsula. The population was 12,616 at the 2010 census, making it the third-largest city i ...

Negaunee Negaunee ( or ) is a city in Marquette County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 4,568 at the 2010 census. The city is located at the southwest corner of Negaunee Township, which is administratively separate, in the Upper Peni ...

iron mines Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the for ...

. Escanaba's maritime commerce "exploded as vessels loaded with ore left the growing port headed for the hungry steel mills along the shores of the eastern lakes." The island and the surrounding

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes— deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock out ...

s are a hazard to navigation, and as early as 1891, the

United States Lighthouse Board The United States Lighthouse Board was the second agency of the U.S. federal government, under the Department of Treasury, responsible for the construction and maintenance of all lighthouses and navigation aids in the United States, between 1852 ...

asked Congress for appropriations to build a light there. The request for a lighthouse was necessitated by the existence of a

shoal In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface. It ...

that extends out for a mile each way from the island. It took the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...

eight years to appropriate the funds. St. Martin Island Light was constructed in 1905. Robert W. Warner of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin was the first pilot to land on St. Martin Island in the early 1950s. To this day, no one else has traveled to the island by air. The Fred Luber family bought roughly 94% of the island (1,244 acres) in the 1980s, intending to build a resort. The remote location made development difficult and the island was left unimproved. The Nature Conservancy bought the island in 2013, intending to donate it to the

Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge of the United States located in the state of Wisconsin. It includes five all or part of six islands in Lake Michigan: Hog Island, Plum Island, Pilot Island, part of St. Martin Is ...

as it is an important bird stopover point. St. Martin Island and the lighthouse are off limits to the public.

Note

"St. Martin Island" may also refer to islands in

Mackinac County, Michigan Mackinac County ( ) is a county in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 10,834. The county seat is St. Ignace. Formerly known as Michilimackinac County, in 1818 it was one of the first cou ...

. There is the St. Martin Island at , which along with Little Saint Martin Island at and Big St. Martin Island at form the St. Martin Islands group in the St. Martin Bay.

In popular culture

The 1982 Canadian slasher film '' Humongous'' is set on St. Martin Island.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Martin Island Islands of Delta County, Michigan Niagara Escarpment Islands of Lake Michigan in Michigan