Beaver Island ArchiveA primary-source archive & encyclopedia45°40′N 85°33′W · Lake Michigan
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Cape

Northwest Point

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

Locator map: Northwest Point highlighted within the Beaver Island archipelago
Locator plate © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0); depths NOAA; names USGS GNIS. How the plates are drawn.
TypeCape
Coordinates45.8283° N, 85.5259° WGoogle MapsDownload KML
WithinGarden Island
ErasModern era
On this page
Locator map: Northwest Point highlighted within the Beaver Island archipelago
Locator plate © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0); depths NOAA; names USGS GNIS. How the plates are drawn.
CapeGNIS 1618651
Coordinates
45.8283° N, 85.5259° WGoogle MapsDownload KML
Eras
Modern era
Concepts
toponymymaritimeshipping
Within
Garden Island

Summary

Northwest Point is a GNIS-named cape on the northwestern end of Garden Island. A January 1965 Beaver Beacon retrospective of the 1900 Squaw Island light tragedy describes fish tugs passing the “northwest point of the island” while the survivors drifted toward the steamer channel and expected to miss Trout Island. Because the account does not give the point’s proper name, it is retained as contextual maritime evidence rather than a definitive identification of that passage with this GNIS feature.

Open questions

  • Can charts or the original 1900 lighthouse-service reports identify the island named in the passage?
  • What other navigation or fishing records locate Northwest Point more precisely?

Sources

  1. GNIS feature 1618651; feature class 'Cape'.
    federal · gnis · gnis_names
  2. Retelling a 1900 lighthouse-service disaster, the article says fish tugs passed the “northwest point of the island” and that the survivors would miss Trout Island. The article does not use the GNIS name, so the association is contextual rather than asserted as an exact name match.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1965-01_Beaver-Beacon
  3. 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 · 1965-01_Beaver-Beacon

Added 28 July 2026 · revised 3 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Northwest Point”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/places/northwest-point/, accessed [date], citing U.S. Geological Survey, Geographic Names Information System, Domestic Names (Michigan), retrieved 2026-07-28. (and 2 further sources listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-03. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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