Name: Beaver Beacon challenges a Detroit News safest-city comparison in 1997
Start: 1997-12
End: 1997-12
Location: Beaver Island

Locator map: Beaver Island highlighted within the Beaver Island archipelago — Took place at Beaver IslandLocator plate © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0); depths NOAA; names USGS GNIS. How the plates are drawn.

Event

Date: 1997-12
Kind: Announcement
Where: Beaver Island
Eras: Modern era
Concepts: public-servicecommunitycommunication
Within: Beaver Island

Summary

The December 1997 Beaver Beacon challenged a Detroit News headline that called Grosse Ile the state’s safest city. The Beacon’s reprinted letter argued that the comparison treated Grosse Ile as a city while leaving Beaver Island’s two townships out, and asserted that the Island had no serious crimes per 100 residents in the cited comparison.

Evidence limits

This record preserves a published source critique, not an independent crime rate calculation or verification of the underlying FBI survey. The issue does not reproduce the attached deputy’s full statistics or the survey methodology.

Sources

Beaver Beacon, December 1997, “Grosse Ile Leads State as Safest City” and “Grosse Ile Leads State as Safest City (remember that?).”
The Beacon reprints a letter to Detroit News staff arguing that an FBI-based comparison excluded Beaver Island’s two townships and asserting that the Island had no serious crimes per 100 residents in the cited comparison; the article does not reproduce the underlying FBI dataset. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1997-12_Beaver-Beacon
Beaver Beacon, December 1997, held issue PDF, source scan.
The held issue scan confirms the published correction letter.
data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1997-12_Beaver-Beacon

Added 7 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Beaver Beacon challenges a Detroit News safest-city comparison in 1997”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-safest-city-comparison-correction-1997/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Beacon, December 1997, “Grosse Ile Leads State as Safest City” and “Grosse Ile Leads State as Safest City (remember that?).” (and 1 further source listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-07. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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