This archive holds the record — treaties, charts, dictionaries, newspapers, songs — and this encyclopedia cites it, claim by claim, across 21,546 articles drawn from 627 sources. Where the record is thin, the articles say so.
Start with the story
The big island and its names — Amikogenda, les Isles du Castor, Beaver Island — attested source by source.
EventAssassination of James StrangShot from behind on the dock at Saint James, 16 June 1856, by two of his own former followers.
IslandOjibwa Island“Squaw Island” on the charts from 1857; renamed by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names in 2022.
On this date
23 August
- 1958James L. Martin and Mary A. Delia marry in Fremont, 1958
- 1959John James Martin drowns when a tender tug sinks near Beaver Island, 1959
- 1970Beaver Island Episcopal Mission consecrates altar and baptizes Christa Stein, 1970
- 1980Port St. James announces its August 1980 board meeting and property tour
- 1986Jeff and Margaret Swinehart marry in a Beaver Island beach wedding, 1986
No event in the encyclopedia is dated 23 August. The almanac has every date the record does reach.
16 more on 23 August in the almanac
New here?
- Look something up — a name, a place, a boat
- Read one article — the island and its names
- See what is held — every source, and where it came from
- Understand the rules — what this will and will not claim
What it looks like
6,368 charts, maps, photographs and recordings, each with a citable page carrying its provenance, its checksum and its holder's terms — sampled here from the oldest held object to the newest.
Coronelli Partie Occidentale du Canada, 16881688 · Wikimedia Commons scan
11rr_and_daughter.jpg (2002)2002 · Beaver Beacon (individual photographers credited per image)
2Beaver_Beacon_Beaver_Island_4th_of_July_2003_JC_5845.jpg2003 · Beaver Beacon (individual photographers credited per image)
Beacon-JJC-PABI-5605.jpg (2009)2009 · Beaver Beacon (individual photographers credited per image)
Live Nativity (2012) · beaver-beacon-live-nativity-at-foggs-08662012 · Beaver Beacon (individual photographers credited per image)
Posted to Beaver Island Boat Company (Facebook page) by Beaver Island Boat Company on 2013-03-18 12:37:07 · 2013-03-18-602526766443906Individual posters, credited per image
Posted to Beaver Island Boat Company (Facebook page) by Beaver Island Boat Company on 2017-07-08 12:58:47Individual posters, credited per image
Posted to Beaver Island Historical Society (Facebook page) by Beaver Island Historical Society on 2019-03-24 00:18:53Individual posters, credited per image
Posted to Beaver Island Boat Company (Facebook page) by Beaver Island Boat Company on 2020-11-01 16:34:09 · 2020-11-01-3999379083425307Individual posters, credited per image
Posted to Beaver Island Historical Society (Facebook page) by Beaver Island Historical Society on 2024-04-17 14:00:15Individual posters, credited per image
Posted to Beaver Island Historical Society (Facebook page) by Beaver Island Historical Society on 2026-07-03 19:05:28Individual posters, credited per image
beaverisland.net community site (incl · fishing2beaverisland.net
The contents of the archive
The encyclopedia is written in sections, one per kind of thing. The instruments cut across all of them at once: the whole record ordered by date, or by the source it came out of, instead of by kind.
- Places380 articlesIslands, bays, points, lakes, roads and settlements.
- People943 articlesIslanders, keepers, mariners and visitors, with their notices.
- Events15,384 articlesDated happenings, from federal surveys to wrecks and drownings.
- Themes59 articlesThe archipelago's recurring subjects, written as essays.
- Organizations155 articlesChurches, companies, boards, lodges and public bodies.
- Vessels75 articlesShips and boats of the archipelago, and what became of them.
- Structures52 articlesLights, docks, churches, mills and other built things.
- Families3 articlesIsland families treated as units of record.
- Documents & sources4,432 articlesMaps, treaties, reports and land records — largely survey and parcel entries.
- SearchFull text across the encyclopedia and the OCR'd archive together.
- Timeline15,384 dated eventsEvery dated event in the encyclopedia, decade by decade.
- Almanac9,291 events on 366 datesThe calendar: what the record places on each date of the year.
- AtlasPlates drawn from the archive's own data, free to download.
- MapEvery located place on the archipelago, joined to what is written about it.
- Bibliography627 sourcesEvery source held, where it came from, and how often it is cited.
- Media6,368 objectsCharts, maps, photographs and recordings, one citable page each.
- Records1,616 register entriesThe parish register, as Helen Collar transcribed it — not encyclopedia articles.
- RecentWhat was added and what changed, by the day it happened.
- TrailsEvery named route, and what kind of evidence puts it on the map.
- Photo huntWhat to photograph on the island, ranked by the archive and the surveys.
- VisitingMuseum days, the kitchens in town, and the boat's own calendar.
The name, as attested
One island, written down in three languages. A date is the first time this archive can show the name written — not when it began. The Anishinaabemowin names are the oldest and were recorded last, which is a fact about who was keeping records.
Anishinaabemowin · written 1853–2025
- Amikogenda1853
- Amikiminis1853
- A-mic-wug-ain-dod1918
- Amikokenda1986
- Amikwaganda2025
French · written 1695–1744
- Isles du Castorc.1695
- les Isles du Castor1721
- I. du Castor1744
English · written 1755–1857
- Beaver I.1755
- Great Beaver Island1833
- Beaver islands1836
- Big Beaver1838
- BIG BEAVER I.1849
- Beaver Island1857still in use
Follow the name through the record, attestation by attestation — each one with the source it was read from.
By era
- Indigenous eraAnishinaabe presence in the archipelago
- French eraHistorical toponymy and map change
- Early American eraTreaty of Washington with the Ottawa, etc., 1836
- Strang eraJames Jesse Strang
- Irish eraIrish settlement of Beaver Island
- Lumbering eraLumbering
- Modern eraNotices from the island papers
From the sources
Every scan, chart, map and recording the archive may republish has its own page — 6,368 of them, each with its rights in the holder's own words. Browse the media, or read the bibliography for the collections they came from.
What the search covers
521,212 segments in all, counted when the search index was last built on 4 August 2026. Transcription is still running, so these rise. What the search covers, in detail.