Gull Island, located in
St. James Township,
Charlevoix County, Michigan, is the largest of approximately one dozen islands bearing this name in Michigan. 230 acres (0.9 km²) in size, it is managed by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the
Michigan Islands National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge was created in 1943.
Relatively isolated, Gull Island is located 7 miles (11 km) west of
High Island (Michigan)
High Island is an island in Lake Michigan and is part of the Beaver Island archipelago. It is in size. The island is owned by the U.S. state of Michigan and is managed by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources as part of the Beaver Island ...
, which is itself uninhabited. It is the largest of the four
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 ...
islands in the Michigan Islands NWR, and the only one to have a substantial forest ecosystem.
Balsam fir and
northern whitecedar grow in the island's humid, boreal climate. Gull Island also has beaches and sand dunes on its north and east sides.
Gull Island, like the other Lake Michigan islands within the Michigan Islands NWR, is managed as a satellite refuge of the
Seney National Wildlife Refuge.
On November 18, 1958, the
SS Carl D. Bradley
SS ''Carl D. Bradley'' was an American self-unloading Great Lakes freighter that sank in a Lake Michigan storm on November 18, 1958. Of the 35 crew members, 33 died in the sinking. Twenty-three were from the port town of Rogers City, Michig ...
, a
cargo vessel
A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usu ...
that specialized in the transport of
limestone for steel mills, foundered and sank 12 miles southwest of Gull Island. The incident included the loss of 33 of the 35 men aboard.
References
External links
Seney NWR
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Protected areas of Charlevoix County, Michigan
Uninhabited islands of Michigan
Islands of Charlevoix County, Michigan
Islands of Lake Michigan in Michigan