Thursday 8 May 2025--The weather has been lovely since I left Pelee Island, and today is a fine day to drive around Beaver Island and see the sights. Among these is the Beaver Island Lighthouse, at the southern end of the island.

There is some weird history on the island: a splinter sect of Mormons settled on Beaver Island in 1848, under the leadership of James Jesse Strang. Strang served two terms in the state legislature and did a lot of good work organizing and developing the northern parts of the Mitten, but the mixture of politics and theology on the island itself led to a fraught civic atmosphere. Strang was shot in the back by two disaffected followers on the dock at St James, in June 1856. He lingered for three weeks before dying; in the meantime, hostile non-Mormons from Mackinac Island arrived and forcibly evicted the 2600 Mormon residents. Most relocated to Voree, Wisconsin, which is to this day the headquarters of the Strangite branch of the Latter Day Saints movement. It currently claims fewer than 500 members, most in Voree. Strang's murderers were nominally tried in Mackinac, assessed $1.25 each in court costs, and released, to the cheers of the locals.

There are several lovely beaches around Beaver Island, including this one at Iron Ore Bay, not far from the lighthouse. The artifact at the water's edge is an abandoned bit of equipment that was used in an unsuccessful attempt to salvage a nearby shipwreck in the 1970s.