- Coordinates
- 45.7386° N, 85.5416° WGoogle Maps: Font LakeDownload KML
- Eras
- Strang eraModern era
- Concepts
- environmentfishingtourismgeologysoilshydrologywetlandsforestswildlifeanimalsbirdsrecreationconservationdisastertoponymycommunity
- Within
- Beaver Island
- Media
- "Font Lake, Beaver Island, where King Strang baptized his people" — plate from A Child of the Sea (1905) · Beaver Island History Map, 1978 revision · Plat of Big Beaver Island, 1901 · Plat of the north end of Beaver Island, 1930s
Summary
Font Lake is a shallow, roughly 382-acre inland lake in Beaver Island’s northern interior, straddling the Peaine–St. James township line. It is the island’s second-largest lake, first recorded as “Font L.” on an 1853 map printed amid a cluster of names tied to James Strang’s settlement, though no held source explains the name itself. Homes and Port of St. James Association land line its shores, along with a township park, a public boat launch, and vegetative mats used by nesting loons.
The Beaver Beacon documents the lake across seven decades: turtle removal and a proposed subdivision in the early 1960s, fishing and recreation through the 1970s and 1987, flooding of Donegal Bay Road in 1985, and organized loon protection from 1987. In 2024 St. James Township named a parcel on its west shore Great Blue Heron Park. The evidence does not establish who first applied the name Font, when the shoreline was first developed, or whether the Island Club Woods and wild-goose-refuge proposals were ever carried out.
History
The earliest held written form of the name is “Font L.,” printed on John Farmer’s 1853 map of Michigan amid a cluster of names associated with James Strang’s island settlement — Saint James, Beaver Harbour, Enoch, Pool of Siloam, Mount Pisgah, and Gennesareth Lake. See Historical toponymy and map change and Names, below, for what that grouping does and does not establish.
The lake also had a documented religious function. Minutes of the Strangite conference held at Enoch Grove in July 1855 report Strang announcing that “baptism for the dead at Beaver Island” was to be performed only in Font Lake. On July 11 the conference unanimously approved and ordained George Miller, Gilbert Watson, and A. J. Porter to perform that rite “at this place.”1 This contemporary record corroborates the 1978 Historical Map’s general note that Font Lake was used for Mormon baptisms, while narrowing it to the rite actually named by the source. It does not identify a shore site or establish that every kind of baptism was performed there.
By the mid-twentieth century the Beaver Beacon records the lake as a working part of island life. In August 1961 Roy Chambers of Indian River trapped 99 snapping turtles from Lake Geneserath and Font Lake, 1,750 pounds combined, which duck hunters reportedly welcomed since the turtles took ducklings. In February 1962 Henry Allen of Ann Arbor announced Island Club Woods, a proposed 800-acre subdivision partly bordering Font Lake and partly fronting Lake Michigan near Donegal Bay, with half-acre lots, a clubhouse, a pool, stables, two airstrips, and a June 20, 1962 planned opening; no held source confirms it was built. In April 1965 the Beaver Island Game Club proposed, but is not shown to have completed, posting part of the lake as a wild-goose refuge.
Fishing recurs through the mid-1970s: the February and March 1975 “Game News” columns report perch catches over a pound. On January 27, 1974 the Civic Association ran an 8.3-mile snowmobile race near Font and Barney’s Lakes, and the island’s Annual Winter Games (skiing, a snowmobile obstacle course, and food) were held on the lake itself on January 29, 1987. A March 1984 Beacon memoir recalls childhood summers at Font Lake, “located across the road from my grandparents’ home,” recording it as “barely five feet deep” at its deepest point.
In March and again in May 1985, Font Lake breached the sand dune separating it from Donegal Bay Road near the S curve, flooding the road and, the second time, homeowners’ basements and the approach to Kings Highway. St. James Township then ratified an emergency drain there.
An April 1987 Beacon article named Font Lake one of five island lakes with documented historical loon nesting, singling it out with Barney’s for the highest nesting success while also being the most heavily used and least protected from boaters. In August 1988 the Michigan Loon Registry reported two chicks there. In February 2024 St. James Township named a lakeside parcel Great Blue Heron Park.
Geography
Font Lake lies in Beaver Island’s northern interior and is, at approximately 382 acres, the island’s second-largest lake after Lake Geneserath (an independent polygon overlay computed here measures about 1.49 km², roughly 367 acres, by a different method). The 2024–2028 Peaine Township Recreation Plan places Peaine Township’s northern boundary through the lake’s lower portion, so it sits astride the line with St. James Township.
Homes line part of the northern and much of the western shoreline. The Port of St. James Association owns about half a mile of the western shoreline with lakeside trails, and “floating islands” of vegetative mat near the south edge serve as loon and waterfowl nesting sites. The Font Lake Boat Launch, owned by the Association, sits on Donegal Bay Road across from Font Lake Road; shallow water, loon nesting, and the floating mats limit boating to small, slow-speed craft. On the south end, Peaine Township’s Font Lake Park, behind the township hall, has a playground, courts, and a path to a bird-watching observation deck. Little Font Lake Trail, mapped west of the lake, connects to White Birch Road.
The lake is shallow: a 1999 Michigan Natural Features Inventory survey found visited sites generally less than two metres deep with a thick organic bottom mat, and recorded one loon pair with a chick, a sample rather than a complete inventory. It supports a fishery for yellow perch, rock bass, largemouth bass, and smallmouth bass, and is listed among the island’s central birding sites. Soil, wetland, and pre-settlement vegetation overlays place it among forested-wetland and dune/lacustrine-sand units, within reconstructed beech–sugar maple–hemlock and swamp cover: regional comparisons, not parcel-level fact.
Names
Font Lake’s earliest recorded name is the “Font L.” printed on Farmer’s 1853 map (above), inside the cluster the held toponymy record associates with the Strang settlement. Grouping is not explanation: unlike Enoch, Siloam, and Gennesareth, “Font” is not among the coined names documented from Strang’s own newspaper and gazetteer, and no held source gives it a biblical referent or any other etymology. The origin of the name is accordingly unresolved.
GNIS carries “Font Lake” as the sole official form for feature 626212, entered
through the U.S. Geological Survey’s 1976–1981 Geographic Names Phase I
compilation; the held variant-names table records no spelling variant or
superseded name for it. No former name was found in any source read for this
article, so former_names and alt_names remain empty rather than inferred.
Significance
Across the Beaver Beacon‘s run, Font Lake recurs as a shared resource under competing uses: subdivision promotion, wildlife-refuge planning, winter recreation, flood response, and organized loon protection. It remains part of the two townships’ public-land inventory, most recently through the 2024 naming of Great Blue Heron Park on its west shore.
Open questions
- What explains the name “Font,” and did it predate the Strang-era map cluster it appears in?
- Was Island Club Woods (1962) or the Game Club’s wild-goose refuge (1965) ever completed?
- What is the lake’s current loon-nesting status, given the DNR’s 1987 proposal to list the species as threatened?
- How does the 382-acre master-plan estimate reconcile with the independently computed ~367-acre (1.49 km²) polygon measurement?
- When were the Font Lake Boat Launch and Font Lake Park first established?
- Where in or around Font Lake were the 1855 baptisms for the dead performed, and do participant journals or church records document particular ceremonies?
If you can answer any of these, or correct anything above, the archive wants to hear it — see Corrections.
See also
Footnotes
-
Northern Islander, “Minutes of the Conference,” July 7–11, 1855. ↩
Maps for this place
These Atlas plates provide regional context. They do not establish a precise boundary, current ownership, access right, operating status, or field condition.
- EnvironmentSoils, wetlands, hydrography, and terrain
- GeologyGeneralized geology and landforms
- HydrologyMapped water and wetland context
- AccessMapped routes, facilities, and protected areas
- Land surveyPLSS geometry and historic GLO patent-location context
The dated record
Sources
- GNIS feature 626212; feature class 'Lake'; name entered the federal gazetteer through the USGS's 1976-1981 Geographic Names Phase I compilation (record created 14 April 1980, edited 28 August 2019). No variant name for feature 626212 appears in the held GNIS variant-names table.federal · gnis · gnis_names
- The single row for feature 626212 carries feature_name_official = "Official" and no variant entry; confirms no recorded spelling variant or former name for Font Lake in GNIS.federal · gnis · gnis_variant_names
- Describes Font Lake as approximately 382 acres, the Island's second-largest lake, with homes around the north and west shores, a public boat launch at the north end, and Peaine Township viewing access at Font Lake Park on the south end; also lists Font Lake among central-island birding sites and describes its fishery (yellow perch, rock bass, largemouth and smallmouth bass) and herpetofauna.
- States Peaine Township's northern boundary runs through the lower portion of Font Lake; describes "floating islands" of vegetative mat near the lake's south edge used as loon and waterfowl nesting sites, half a mile of Port of St. James Association shoreline and trails on the west shore, the Font Lake Boat Launch's ownership, location, and small-craft-only limits, and Font Lake Park's playground, picnic tables, courts, and bird-watching observation deck behind the Peaine Township Hall.planning · beaver_island_master_plan · 2024-2028-beaver-island-recreation-plan-fa1f69af
- The Beaver Island detail labels the lake 'Font L.'; the map establishes the historical spelling but does not explain the name's origin or prove that the cartographic feature corresponds exactly to the modern GNIS geometry.maps · rumsey · farmer_1853_michigan · full
- *Northern Islander* (Saint James), “Minutes of the Conference, held at Enoch Grove, Saint James, Beaver Island, July 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th, 1855.”Described in this archive: Northern Islander, 1850–1856.The contemporary conference minutes report Strang announcing that baptism for the dead at Beaver Island was to be performed only in Font Lake; the conference later approved and ordained George Miller, Gilbert Watson, and A. J. Porter to perform that rite “at this place.” This proves the lake’s formally designated ritual use, but does not locate a baptism site on its shore or establish ordinary baptism there. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
- Described in this archive: Beaver Island History Map, 1978 revision.Says Font Lake was used for Mormon baptisms. The 1855 Northern Islander independently corroborates the claim and specifies baptism for the dead.
- MNFI, Biological Inventory For Conservation of Great Lakes Islands: 1999 Progress Report (Report 2000-11), Common Loon and Beaver aquatic-site crosswalk records.Described in this archive: MNFI Great Lakes Islands 1999 progress report crosswalk.Records one Common Loon pair with a chick at Font Lake and a shallow, organic-bottom observation from visited sites. The report’s sampling was not a complete lake inventory. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.research · wildlife · indices · mnfi_great_lakes_islands_1999_inventory_index
- Project-generated named aquatic and wetland place crosswalk (2026).Described in this archive: Named aquatic and wetland places crosswalk, 2026.Provides polygon overlay context for the named lake; SSURGO, NWI, geology, and circa-1800 categories are regional/map context, not parcel soil determinations or current habitat boundaries. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.research · places · named_aquatic_wetland_place_crosswalk
- Reports Roy Chambers of Indian River capturing 99 snapping turtles from Lake Geneserath and Font Lake, combined weight 1,750 pounds, and that duck hunters welcomed the removal because the turtles took ducklings from the lake surface.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1961-08_Beaver-Beacon
- Reports Henry Allen's proposed Island Club Woods development on about 800 acres partly bordering Font Lake and partly fronting Lake Michigan near Donegal Bay, with half-acre lots, a clubhouse, pool, stables, two airstrips, and a promotional visitor package; gives June 20, 1962 as the planned opening date. Does not establish that the project was built.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1962-02_Beaver-Beacon
- Reports the Beaver Island Game Club discussing a posted wild-goose refuge taking in part of Font Lake and surrounding area; reported as a proposal, not a completed action.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1965-04_Beaver-Beacon
- Reports an 8.3-mile cross-country snowmobile race on January 27, 1974, over a route covering areas of Font and Barney's Lakes.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1974-02_Beaver-Beacon
- Reports Ed Ladd catching perch after spudding holes in Font Lake, while Perry Gatliff caught little on the harbor. 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 · 1975-02_Beaver-Beacon
- Reports Perry Gatliff, Ed Ladd, and Father Herbert catching perch over a pound in Font Lake. 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 · 1975-03_Beaver-Beacon
- Signed memoir recalling childhood play at Font Lake, "located across the road from my grandparents' home," and recording as an adult that the lake is "barely five feet deep" at its deepest point. A first-person recollection, not a survey. 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 · 1984-03_Beaver-Beacon
- Reports that in mid-March 1985 Font Lake washed away part of the sand dune near the Donegal Bay Road S curve and flooded the road toward Lake Michigan; Jim Wojan rebuilt the dune with a loader. 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 · 1985-04_Beaver-Beacon
- Reports Font Lake overflowed again, flooding homeowners' basements; culverts near the township campground road drained the lake toward Lake Michigan. 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 · 1985-05_Beaver-Beacon
- Reports high Great-Lakes water levels left Font Lake extremely high, flooding basements and approaching Kings Highway; the Township ratified a trench and drain under Donegal Bay Road near the campsite, built on the advice of an engineer and the county road commission. 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 · 1985-06_Beaver-Beacon
- Reports the Annual Winter Games held January 29, 1987 "on Font Lake": cross-country ski races, a snowmobile obstacle course, children's games, and a "fish shanty" food stand. 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 · 1987-03_Beaver-Beacon
- Reports loons historically documented nesting on five island lakes -- Barney's, Egg, Font, Fox, and Green's -- with high nesting success on Barney's and Font, both unprotected from boaters; reports a proposed DNR upgrade of loon status to "threatened." 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 · 1987-04_Beaver-Beacon
- Reports the Michigan Loon Registry planning a lake-level survey of known nesting lakes, and two loon chicks with one set of parents at Font Lake. 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 · 1988-08_Beaver-Beacon
- Records the Board's unanimous motion naming township parcel PIN 013-705-204-00, on Font View Court on the west side of Font Lake, "Great Blue Heron Park." Does not describe a park plan or public access.governance · township_meetings · st-james-board · february-14-2024-approved-b1c9fca69a
Added 28 July 2026 · revised 7 August 2026. Recent changes
Cite this article
Beaver Island Archive, “Font Lake”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/places/font-lake/, accessed [date], citing U.S. Geological Survey, Geographic Names Information System, Domestic Names (Michigan), retrieved 2026-07-28. (and 22 further sources 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.