Drummond Township ( ) is a

civil township A civil township is a widely used unit of local government in the United States that is subordinate to a County (United States), county, most often in the northern and midwestern parts of the country. The term town is used in New England town, Ne ...

of Chippewa County in the U.S. state of

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. The population was 973 at the 2020 census. The township encompasses the large Drummond Island and numerous smaller islands. Drummond Island is the seventh-largest lake island in the world. With an area of , it is also the third-largest

lake island A lake island is any landmass within a lake. It is a type of inland island. Lake islands may form a lake archipelago. Formation Lake islands may form in numerous ways. They may occur through a build-up of sedimentation as shoals, and become t ...

Lake Huron Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is shared on the north and east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the south and west by the U.S. state of Michigan. The name of the lake is derived from early French ex ...

, behind Manitoulin and St. Joseph, and the fifth-largest island in the

contiguous United States The contiguous United States, also known as the U.S. mainland, officially referred to as the conterminous United States, consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the District of Columbia of the United States in central North America. The te ...

, behind

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

Padre Island Padre Island is the largest of the Texas barrier islands and the world's longest barrier island. The island is located along Texas's southern coast of the Gulf of Mexico and is noted for its white sandy beaches. Meaning ''father'' in Spanish, ...

Isle Royale Isle Royale (, ) is an Islands of the Great Lakes, island of the Great Lakes located in the northwest of Lake Superior and part of the U.S. state of Michigan. The island and the 450 surrounding smaller islands and waters make up Isle Royale Na ...

and

Whidbey Island Whidbey Island (historical spellings Whidby, Whitbey, or Whitby) is the largest of the islands composing Island County, Washington, Island County, Washington (state), Washington, in the United States, and the largest island in Washington stat ...

. M-134 extends from the mainland to run through the western portion of the island, connecting with the mainland via the Drummond Island Ferry, which runs between the island and DeTour Village. On the east side of Drummond Island, the

Canada–United States border The international border between Canada and the United States is the longest in the world by total length. The boundary (including boundaries in the Great Lakes, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts) is long. The land border has two sections: Canada' ...

passes through the

False Detour Channel The False Detour Channel is a short channel in Lake Huron, connecting the main body of the lake to the North Channel. Retrieved 2013-03-30 The Canada–United States border passes roughly through the middle of the channel, which separates Michiga ...

. On the other side of that channel, the Canadian Cockburn Island separates Drummond from Manitoulin Island.

Communities

* Drummond (or Drummond Island) is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Potagannissing Bay Potagannissing Bay (Anishinaabe language, Anishinaabe: ''Bootaagan-minising-wiikwed'' (syncope (phonology), syncope as ''Bootaagan-mnising-wiikwed''), meaning "Bay by the Mill Island (Drummond Island)") is a shallow, island-strewn bay on Lake Huro ...

on the northwest side of the island at . It was named after British commander

Gordon Drummond General Sir Gordon Drummond, GCB (27 September 1772 – 10 October 1854) was a Canadian-born British Army officer and the first official to command the military and the civil government of Canada. As Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, Drum ...

, who built a fort here after the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

. He abandoned the fort in 1822 when it was apparent that the island would become American territory. By the 1850s, the area was settled by Mormon missionaries and Native Americans. A post office in Drummond began operating on February 9, 1881. The post office was renamed Drummond Island on July 1, 1953. The Drummond Island 49726 ZIP Code serves the entirety of Drummond Township. * Johnswood (also spelled as Johns Wood) is an unincorporated community on the southern coast of the island at . The community was settled around 1905 when the Kreetan Company from

Tonawanda, New York Tonawanda is a city in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 15,129 at the 2020 census. It is at the northern edge of Erie County, south across the Erie Canal ( Tonawanda Creek) from North Tonawanda, east of Grand Island, a ...

took over the area sawmills. It was originally named Scammon's Cove after the small bay. A post office began operating under the name Kreetan on September 7, 1905. The post office was renamed Johns Wood when Harold Johnson became postmaster on March 19, 1914. The post office remained in operation until 1927. * Lincoln is an unincorporated community near the center of Drummond Island at . * Maxton is an unincorporated community located at . The community was established by the Cleveland Cedar Company in 1904 as a sawmill settlement along Potagannissing Bay a few miles northeast of Drummond. For the next three decades, several other sawmills began operating here. A post office in Maxton operated from 1904 until 1950.

History

Drummond Island Quarry- East End Looking East - DPLA - b582ab8e930a14a5a1467351e77e6a7a

The township and island are named after

, the first

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

-born officer to command the military and the civil government of British Canada. As

Lieutenant Governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada () was a Province, part of The Canadas, British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the Province of Queb ...

, Drummond distinguished himself on the Niagara front in the

and later became Governor-General and Administrator of Canada. The

Ojibwe The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...

name for the island is ''Bootaagan-minising'' ( syncope as ''Bootaagan-mnising''Freelang Ojibwe Dictionary
/ref> recorded as "Potagannissing"), meaning "at the Mill Island". The history of Drummond Island dates back centuries, but more recent history of the past 200 years relates to the British occupation of the island during and after the

. The island was the last British outpost on American soil following the

Treaty of Ghent The Treaty of Ghent () was the peace treaty that ended the War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom. It took effect in February 1815. Both sides signed it on December 24, 1814, in the city of Ghent, United Netherlands (now in ...

(1814). On October 6, 1828, orders were sent out from Quebec that the post would be handed over, and the island was officially occupied by United States on November 14, 1828. Drummond Island was originally recorded by Americans as First Manitoulin Island and Drummond's Island.

Border on the Great Lakes

British and American negotiators to the 1814 Treaty of Ghent ended the

by offering no territorial concessions to either side, but returned to those boundaries set by the

Treaty of Paris of 1783 A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between sovereign states and/or international organizations that is governed by international law. A treaty may also be known as an international agreement, protocol, covenant, convention ...

. To resolve territorial claims that had precipitated the war, negotiators at

Ghent Ghent ( ; ; historically known as ''Gaunt'' in English) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium, province ...

established a process whereby commissioners would survey the boundary to determine the borders envisioned in the original treaty. Beginning in August 1820, two teams of surveyors, including British explorer and cartographer David Thompson, mapped the area of St. Joseph Island, Drummond Island, and Lesser and Greater Manitou Islands (today Cockburn and Manitoulin islands). Mapping this corner of

was a challenge given that little was known about the shores and depths of the channels between the islands. The agent for the United States survey team, Major Joseph Delafield, complained, "No map that I have seen has any truth as it respects the position of Drummond's or the other islands about St. Marys. We entered this bay without a pilot, but are told we cannot proceed up river without one." Based on the surveys taken in the summers of 1820 and 1821, and guided by the commission's two principles that the boundary would not divide islands and that the number of islands would be apportioned equally between the two countries, in November and December 1821, commissioners agreed to grant St. Joseph Island and Cockburn Island to Canada and Drummond Island, which lies between them, to the United States.

Geography

According to the

US Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

, the township has a total area of , of which is land and , or 48.23%, is water. The island is dominated by forest, with cliffs on the eastern side, which are part of the

Niagara Escarpment The Niagara Escarpment is an approximately discontinuous, arc-shaped but generally northward-facing escarpment, or cuesta, in Canada and the United States. The escarpment begins south of Lake Ontario and circumscribes the top of the Great Lake ...

. Most of the island, approximately , is state land owned by the state of Michigan. The island hosts a rare environment known as

alvar An alvar is a biological environment based on a limestone plain with thin or no soil and, as a result, sparse grassland vegetation. Often flooded in the spring, and affected by drought in midsummer, alvars support a distinctive group of prairie ...

, a grassy limestone plain found only in a few places worldwide. Drummond Island is the largest island in the

Manitoulin Island Manitoulin Island ( ) is an island in Lake Huron, located within the borders of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario, in the bioregion known as Laurentia (bioregion), Laurentia. With an area of , it is the Lake ...

chain to be part of the United States. Drummond Township is one of only seven municipalities in the state of Michigan to consist entirely of islands, including Grosse Ile Township, St. James Township, Bois Blanc Township,

Mackinac Island Mackinac Island ( , ; ; ; ) is an island and resort area, covering in land area, in the U.S. state of Michigan. The name of the island in Odawa is Michilimackinac and "Mitchimakinak" in Ojibwemowin, meaning "Great Turtle". It is located in ...

, Peaine Township, and Sugar Island Township.

Climate

Major highways

* is the sole highway serving the island. The Drummond Island Ferry, operated by the Eastern Upper Peninsula Transportation Authority, connects M-134 to the island from DeTour Village. West of there, M-134 parallels the shore of

, until it meets

I-75 Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Southeastern United States, Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end ...

near St. Ignace. It is one of three state trunkline highways on islands in Michigan; the others being M-154 on Harsens Island, and M-185 on

Demographics

In 2020, the township had a population of 973.

References

Sources

External links

Drummond Township, Michigan

Drummond Island Tourism Association
*Kelley, J.G., (2009

Drummond Island Tourism Association, Drummond Island, Michigan. {{Authority control Townships in Michigan Townships in Chippewa County, Michigan Populated places established in 1888 1888 establishments in Michigan Populated places on Lake Huron in the United States Niagara Escarpment