GLO field-note pages: Whiskey Island survey, 1849

Summary

These checked pages from BLM Field Note Volume 168138 record the 1849 federal survey and general description of Whiskey Island in T40N R11W. The survey page records several fishing shanties and a fish house; the following page describes the island’s shore, landform, vegetation, and fishing community in the surveyor’s period language.

Dated observations

The surveyor described small stone ridges, a low elevation above Lake Michigan, thin vegetative soil, short cedar, fir, aspen, and white-birch growth, and burning and cutting of some growth. The notes also report several landings where vessels could come in near the south side of the east end.

The general description says that about twenty families of “Indian and French” people were fishing there. This is a 1849 observation recorded in the federal surveyor’s terminology. It does not identify people or communities, establish tribal affiliation or land rights, or show how long any group lived or fished there before or after the survey.

Evidence and limits

These pages preserve the surveyor’s time-bounded observations of structures, fishing activity, shore, landform, vegetation, and cutting or burning. They do not establish a current or historical title, ownership, parcel boundary, access right, continuous settlement, or present environmental condition.

Added 2 August 2026. Recent changes