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Lake

Fox Lake

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

Locator map: Fox Lake highlighted within the Beaver Island archipelago
Locator plate © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0); depths NOAA; names USGS GNIS. How the plates are drawn.
TypeLake
Coordinates45.6512° N, 85.5672° WGoogle MapsDownload KML
WithinBeaver Island
ErasStrang eraModern era
On this page
Locator map: Fox Lake highlighted within the Beaver Island archipelago
Locator plate © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0); depths NOAA; names USGS GNIS. How the plates are drawn.
LakeGNIS 626379
Coordinates
45.6512° N, 85.5672° WGoogle MapsDownload KML
Eras
Strang eraModern era
Concepts
environmentfishingconservationsoilsgeologyforeststreesvegetationplantswetlandshydrologystewardshipinvasive-speciesheritagehistoriographymormonismwildlifebirdsrecreation
Within
Beaver Island
Media
Beaver Island History Map, 1978 revision · Plat of Big Beaver Island, 1901 · Plat of the north end of Beaver Island, 1930s

Summary

Fox Lake is an inland lake near the center of Beaver Island, GNIS feature 626379 at 45.65116° N, 85.567206° W.1 The 2023 Beaver Island Master Plan describes it as approximately 75 acres, with a bog toward the eastern shore, a variety of fish, and a public access site well known for its proximity to the “Big Birch,” described by the plan as one of Michigan’s oldest birch trees.2 This lake is distinct from the similarly named North Fox and South Fox Islands, an unrelated pair of outlying islands roughly 25 km to the west; nothing in the sources gathered here connects them.

The 1978 History Map attributes land north of the lake in 1852 to “F. Fox” and “R. Fox.” Collar’s census transcription supplies a plausible identification: Francis Fox, a carpenter and joiner, and Ralph Fox, a farmer, were in one Beaver Island household in 1850, and her note says both initials appear north of the lake on the 1852 map. Until the original property map and deeds are checked, this is evidence of mapped occupancy or attribution—not proof that either man held legal title.

The Beaver Beacon documents Fox Lake overwhelmingly as a managed fishery. From 1961 the Civic Association and Michigan’s Conservation Department (later Fisheries Division) ran a repeating cycle of poisoning out the lake’s existing fish and restocking trout, with a first eradication-and-restocking program in 1961 and a second poisoning in 1967, bracketing a decade of closely tracked annual trout seasons, stockings, and catch counts.34 A 1989 dispute over a proposed walleye planting, weighed against nesting common loons, is the clearest documented instance of the lake’s management shifting from a pure fisheries question to an explicitly ecological one.56

Fisheries management, 1961-1971

Fox Lake’s most heavily documented decade begins in February 1961, when the Beaver Island Civic Association voted, by majority, to eradicate the lake’s existing fish and restock desirable species. Max Hunt outlined timing alternatives; the Association chose the fastest route, accepting the loss of a summer fishing season.3 On 1 May 1961, Conservation Department biologist Fukano and Fish Division representative Jerry Meyers poisoned the lake; the plan called for legal-size rainbow or brown trout once testing allowed, and the Civic Association voted unanimously for the trout plan on 5 May.7 By June the lake was found dominated by small perch,8 and an August follow-up still found it toxic to fish, with planting conditional on the poison dissipating and a further department report.9 A first, smaller planting of fourteen brook trout preceded the better-documented stocking of 2,000 brook trout on 6 December 1961 by Bud Knight of Oden Hatcheries and Beaver Island conservation officer Vernon Fitzpatrick — 450 pounds total, averaging 8.5 inches, transported in a tank aboard the Emerald Isle ferry with about two dozen losses.10

Annual seasons and restockings followed through the decade, closely tracked in the Beacon’s game columns. The 1962 season opened 28 April under a new three-year recordkeeping plan; by 30 May, 30 fishermen had caught 33 trout in 78 hours, against a revised local population estimate of 1,464 remaining fish, and the season closed with 216 fishermen recording 294 hours and 166 trout caught before a November restocking of 3,000 legal-sized brook trout.1112 The 1963 season opened 27 April after a reported fall planting of 3,500 legal-size brook trout, with anglers asked to register their fishing time and catch and avoid live minnows; November brought a further restocking of 1,300 legal-size brook trout, alongside ten additional State Forest Campground sites on the island in the same notice.1314 The April 1964 season opening cited stocking “the previous fall and two years earlier”; that October the Conservation Department restocked 1,700 brook trout in two plantings of 850 fish, averaging 9.7 inches and 600 pounds total.1516 Seasons in 1965 and 1966 continued the pattern without notable change.1718 By May 1968, rainbow trout planted after the 1967 poisoning were producing spring catches of two and three pounds,19 and in September 1969 the lake received 500 rainbow trout in two plantings averaging three inches, expected to reach the ten-inch legal size by the next spring.20 The Department of Natural Resources restocked 5,000 fingerling trout in June 1971, the last dated stocking record found here.21

The cycle repeated once more in early September 1967, when the Fisheries Division again poisoned Fox Lake ahead of a planned spring rainbow-trout planting; the Beacon reported that “after the treatment, hundreds of small bluegills came to the surface, yet in the whole lake, only two trout were noted” — evidence that the “undesirable” perch and bluegill population had rebuilt in the six years since 1961 and required a second full treatment.4

The 1989 walleye and loon dispute

By January 1989 Fox Lake’s management question had shifted from which trout to stock to whether to introduce a new species at all. A letter published in the Beacon opposed a proposed walleye planting, citing concern for the common loon that nested there, the likelihood that walleye would draw more fishermen and disturb the birds and other wildlife in “this widely undisturbed area,” and the risk of upsetting the lake’s ecological cycle by introducing a new species; the letter argued walleye belonged in a larger lake better able to support both the fish and the anglers who would pursue them.5 The island’s Wildlife Club responded the following month, arguing that walleye stocking and loon protection could coexist given the lake’s conditions and continued public education.6 No source held here records which position prevailed or whether walleye were ultimately planted.

Ecological profile

The 2017 MNFI natural-community record is a 155-acre Fox Lake Bog occurrence (EO 12097; occurrence rank AB; global/state ranks G3G5/S4; Report 2017-11, p. 13), adjacent to the lake rather than the full lake polygon. It places the bog on poorly drained lakeplain, with deep sphagnum peat over sand. The peat is strongly acidic and saturated, with inundated peat along the lake margin. A floating bog mat on the northwestern side supports a higher-diversity zone that includes white beak-rush, twig-rush, pitcher-plant, and round-leaved sundew. Groundwater influence at the margin is associated with mountain holly and winterberry.

The bog’s scattered, stunted conifer canopy includes tamarack, black spruce, white pine, and locally red pine. Leatherleaf dominates the low shrub layer, with bog laurel, Labrador tea, and bog rosemary; few-seed sedge and sheathed cotton-grass dominate the herbaceous layer. The source describes a denser, taller canopy where the bog mat is grounded or paludified, so the record connects tree structure to peat position and hydrology rather than treating the bog as uniform forest.

MNFI identifies possible logging effects on peat chemistry and compaction, including rutting from logging traffic, and notes that reed canary grass could spread if disturbance changes hydrology and soil chemistry. Its recommendations are to retain a forested buffer and allow natural processes to operate. These are 2017 occurrence-level observations and management recommendations, not a current vegetation inventory, a complete fauna survey, or a legal wetland boundary.

Treasure tradition

Modern retellings place one version of “Strang’s treasure” in Fox Lake, usually as a chest hidden by Strangites during their hurried departure in 1856. The held 2011 lecture manuscript calls it a persistent rumor and says the treasure probably does not exist. No nineteenth-century account, named search record, financial ledger, or archaeological evidence for a cache is currently held. The tradition is documented separately at Strang treasure traditions so that it is not confused with the North Fox, High Island, or Holy Island versions.

Significance

Fox Lake’s significance in the held record is almost entirely as a managed fishery: a small inland lake whose fish population was deliberately destroyed and rebuilt at least twice within a single generation, tracked with a level of numeric detail (fish counts, angler-hours, individual weights) unusual among the island’s other inland lakes. The 1989 walleye dispute marks a documented turn from managing the lake purely for anglers to weighing that use against nesting wildlife, a shift echoed in the bog’s own twenty-first- century conservation framing in the ecological profile below.

Open questions

  • Can the stocking record be matched to Michigan DNR fisheries files and subsequent population surveys?
  • Where precisely is the “Big Birch,” and what source supports the claim about its age?
  • When was the public access site established and how has the eastern bog been mapped?
  • What state or hatchery records document the December 1961 stocking and its later survival?
  • Can the Fox Lake treasure wording be traced earlier than Frederick Stonehouse’s 2004 retelling?
  • Was walleye ultimately planted in Fox Lake after the 1989 dispute, and if so, with what documented effect on the loon population?
  • Did the fish-eradication cycle recur again after 1967, or did the trout fishery established by 1971 hold without a third full treatment?

See also

Footnotes

  1. U.S. Geological Survey, Geographic Names Information System, Domestic Names (Michigan), retrieved 2026-07-28 (data/federal/gnis/gnis_names.geojson), feature 626379. ↩

  2. Beaver Island Master Plan, 2023 update, data/books/internet_archive/beaver-island-master-plan-20231113/. ↩

  3. Beaver Beacon, February 1961, “Island News.” ↩ ↩2

  4. Beaver Beacon, September 1967, “Game News.” ↩ ↩2

  5. Beaver Beacon, January 1989, “Walleye Planting – A Threat to Loons?” ↩ ↩2

  6. Beaver Beacon, February 1989, “Fox Lake Walleye Planting and Loon Nesting Effects.” ↩ ↩2

  7. Beaver Beacon, May 1961, “Fox Lake.” ↩

  8. Beaver Beacon, June 1961, island news and retrospective notices. ↩

  9. Beaver Beacon, August 1961, sporting news. ↩

  10. Beaver Beacon, December 1961, “Good News”; November 1961 game news for the preceding fourteen-trout planting. ↩

  11. Beaver Beacon, March and April 1962, “Conservation Department News” and “Fox Lake.” ↩

  12. Beaver Beacon, June and November 1962, “Fishing News” and “Angler’s Delight.” ↩

  13. Beaver Beacon, May and June 1963, “Game Club News” and “Anglers Angle.” ↩

  14. Beaver Beacon, November 1963, “Game News.” ↩

  15. Beaver Beacon, April 1964, “Game News.” ↩

  16. Beaver Beacon, November 1964, “Game News.” ↩

  17. Beaver Beacon, May 1965, “Game News.” ↩

  18. Beaver Beacon, May 1966, “Trout Season Opens.” ↩

  19. Beaver Beacon, May 1968, “Game News.” ↩

  20. Beaver Beacon, August 1969, “Fish Plant.” ↩

  21. Beaver Beacon, June 1971, “Game News.” ↩

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

32 dated events · 1961–2020 · peak 3 in 1961These years on the timeline →

Sources

  1. GNIS feature 626379; feature class 'Lake'.
    federal · gnis · gnis_names
  2. Describes Fox Lake as 75 acres in the central interior, with a bog on the eastern shore, a fishery, public access, and the nearby “Big Birch” natural landmark.
    internet_archive · beaver-island-master-plan-20231113
  3. Reports the planting of 2,000 brook trout at Fox Lake by a hatchery fish culturist and the Island conservation officer.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1961-12_Beaver-Beacon
  4. The held six-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1961-12_Beaver-Beacon
  5. Reports the December 6 planting details: 2,000 brook trout, 450 pounds total, averaging 8.5 inches, transported in a tank aboard the Emerald Isle ferry with about two dozen losses.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1961-12_Beaver-Beacon
  6. The held six-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1961-12_Beaver-Beacon
  7. Reports the Civic Association’s decision to eradicate Fox Lake fish and restock desirable species, with a summer fishing closure expected. It is a planning notice, not a fisheries treatment record.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1961-03_Beaver-Beacon
  8. The held six-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1961-03_Beaver-Beacon
  9. Reports trout fishing at Fox Lake and local catches during the spring fishing season.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1972-05_Beaver-Beacon
  10. The held eight-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1972-05_Beaver-Beacon
  11. Modern lecture notes repeat a rumor that Strangites buried gold in Fox Lake and say treasure likely does not exist. Evidence for the tradition, not for a cache.
    research · strang_treasure · mcclurg_james_jesse_strang_lecture
  12. Project-generated MNFI 2017 soil, vegetation, and wildlife crosswalk, preserving MNFI Report 2017-11, Fox Lake Bog occurrence, report p. 13.
    Described in this archive: MNFI soil, vegetation, tree, and wildlife crosswalk, 2017.
    The occurrence is the adjacent Fox Lake Bog, not the entire lake polygon. The crosswalk preserves poorly drained lakeplain, acidic sphagnum peat over sand, tree and plant composition, and survey-bounded stewardship evidence. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    research · island_farming · crosswalks · mnfi_soil_vegetation_wildlife_crosswalk
  13. Visual page evidence held with provenance sidecar; the image is an evidence anchor, not a modern boundary or current-condition survey.
    research · island_farming · evidence · mnfi-report-2017-11-page-0013-fox-lake-bog
  14. Checked directly for feature 626379; no variant row exists for Fox Lake, confirming the single official-name record.
    federal · gnis · gnis_variant_names
  15. A participant objected to an outboard motor on Fox Lake because of posted no-wake guidance and concern for loons; another clarified that the restriction was advisory rather than a township ordinance and that trolling motors were acceptable. This is a contemporaneous community observation and clarification, not a current legal determination or wildlife survey.
    forum · www.beaverislandforum.com · 10 · t010363
  16. Records the Beaver Island Civic Association's February 1961 majority vote to eradicate Fox Lake's existing fish and restock desirable species, choosing the fastest timing option at the cost of a summer fishing closure.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1961-02_Beaver-Beacon
  17. Reports Conservation Department biologist Fukano and Fish Division representative Jerry Meyers poisoning Fox Lake on May 1, 1961, with a plan for legal-size rainbow or brown trout after testing; the Civic Association voted unanimously for the trout plan on May 5.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1961-05_Beaver-Beacon
  18. Reports a review finding Fox Lake dominated by small perch after the fish-removal treatment.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1961-06_Beaver-Beacon
  19. Reports the lake still toxic to fish, with the planned trout planting conditional on the poison dissipating and a further Conservation Department report.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1961-08_Beaver-Beacon
  20. Reports an earlier, smaller planting of fourteen brook trout preceding the December 1961 stocking.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1961-11_Beaver-Beacon
  21. Announces Fox Lake's 1962 trout season and a three-year recordkeeping plan.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1962-03_Beaver-Beacon
  22. Reports the 1962 trout season opening April 28.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1962-04_Beaver-Beacon
  23. Reports 30 fishermen catching 33 trout in 78 hours through May 30, 1962, with a revised local population estimate of 1,464 trout remaining.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1962-06_Beaver-Beacon
  24. Reports 216 fishermen spending 294 hours and catching 166 trout in the 1962 season, followed by restocking with 3,000 legal-sized brook trout; sample netting found some fish over a pound.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1962-11_Beaver-Beacon
  25. Reports the 1963 trout season opening April 27 after a reported fall planting of 3,500 legal-size brook trout, and asks anglers to register fishing time and catch and not use minnows.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1963-05_Beaver-Beacon
  26. Reports trout fishing remaining good but easing as insects hatched.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1963-06_Beaver-Beacon
  27. Reports the Fisheries Division restocking Fox Lake with 1,300 legal-size brook trout, and ten additional State Forest Campground campsites added on Beaver Island in the same notice.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1963-11_Beaver-Beacon
  28. Announces an April 25, 1964 trout-season opening, noting stocking the previous fall and two years earlier.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1964-04_Beaver-Beacon
  29. Reports the Conservation Department restocking Fox Lake with 1,700 brook trout in two October 1964 plantings of 850 fish each, averaging 9.7 inches and 600 pounds total.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1964-11_Beaver-Beacon
  30. Reports the 1965 trout season at Fox Lake.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1965-05_Beaver-Beacon
  31. Reports the 1966 trout season opening.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1966-05_Beaver-Beacon
  32. Read directly. Reports the Fisheries Division poisoning Fox Lake in early September 1967 in preparation for a spring rainbow-trout planting: "after the treatment, hundreds of small bluegills came to the surface, yet in the whole lake, only two trout were noted."
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1967-09_Beaver-Beacon
  33. Reports rainbow trout planted at Fox Lake producing spring catches by May 1968, including fish of two and three pounds.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1968-05_Beaver-Beacon
  34. Reports Fox Lake stocked with 500 rainbow trout in two plantings, September 10 and 15, 1969, averaging three inches, expected to reach ten-inch legal size by the following spring.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1969-08_Beaver-Beacon
  35. Reports the Michigan Department of Natural Resources restocking Fox Lake with 5,000 fingerling trout.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1971-06_Beaver-Beacon
  36. Read directly. A letter opposing proposed walleye planting in Fox Lake over concern for nesting common loons, increased fishing pressure, and ecological disruption, quoting the letter's own suggestion that walleye "is inappropriate for Fox Lake" and would be better placed in a larger 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 · 1989-01_Beaver-Beacon
  37. Records the Wildlife Club's response arguing that walleye stocking and loon protection could coexist under the lake's conditions and continued public education. 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 · 1989-02_Beaver-Beacon
  38. Transcribes the 1850 Fox household (Francis, Cynthia, Stephen, Ralph, and Polly Ann) and says F. Fox and R. Fox appear immediately north of Fox Lake on the 1852 map. The note establishes a map label, not legal title.
    web · collar_census_f
  39. Described in this archive: Beaver Island History Map, 1978 revision.
    States that F. Fox and R. Fox owned the land in 1852; retained as an attributed interpretation pending the original map and deeds.

Added 28 July 2026 · revised 7 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Fox Lake”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/places/fox-lake/, accessed [date], citing U.S. Geological Survey, Geographic Names Information System, Domestic Names (Michigan), retrieved 2026-07-28. (and 36 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.

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