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

Bay

Saint James Harbor

Also Harbor of Saint James; formerly Beaver Harbor · Beaver Island Harbor · Beaver Harbour · Paradise Bay

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

Locator map: Saint James Harbor highlighted within the Beaver Island archipelago
Locator plate © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0); depths NOAA; names USGS GNIS. How the plates are drawn.
TypeBay
Coordinates45.7417° N, 85.5112° WGoogle MapsDownload KML
WithinBeaver Island
ErasModern era
On this page
Locator map: Saint James Harbor highlighted within the Beaver Island archipelago
Locator plate © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0); depths NOAA; names USGS GNIS. How the plates are drawn.
BayGNIS 620929
Coordinates
45.7417° N, 85.5112° WGoogle MapsDownload KML
Eras
Modern era
Concepts
toponymyStrang erashippingfishingtourismconstructiongovernance
Within
Beaver Island
Media
"The Light House and Life Saving Station at Beaver Island Harbor" — plate from A Child of the Sea (1905) · Plat of Big Beaver Island, 1901 · Plat of the north end of Beaver Island, 1930s · Steamboat landing at St. James, Beaver Island (film, Gault, ca. 1920s)
Historical chart: North End of Lake Michigan Including the Beaver Island
North End of Lake Michigan Including the Beaver Island Group, 1855 Lake SurveyNOAA Office of Coast Survey, Historical Map & Chart Collection · Public domain (NOAA Office of Coast Survey)

Summary

Saint James Harbor is the enclosed bay at the north end of Beaver Island that gives the island its settlement, its ferry terminus, and its reason for existing at the location it does. GNIS classifies it as a bay (feature 620929) at 45.741666° N, 85.511199° W, and its current official name dates only to a 1979 U.S. Board on Geographic Names decision; for more than a century before that it was charted and written as Beaver Harbor.1 Whiskey Point, on the harbor’s north side, carries the Beaver Island Harbor Light and once held a U.S. Life-Saving Service station; Scott’s 1902 Coast Pilot warns vessels entering to avoid the shoal on the north side of the entrance and records “good anchorage… on a line between the inner and outer docks.”2 From the 1950s through the 1960s the harbor was federally dredged, twice fitted with new municipal docks, and became the fixed terminus of the Beaver Island Boat Company’s car ferries — a role it still holds.

Geography

The harbor sits on the island’s north shore at the settlement of Saint James, enclosed enough to need a marked entrance but open enough that Scott’s Coast Pilot separately describes an easier, if less sheltered, alternative: “there is good anchorage in the bight on the east side of the island, and protection from all westerly gales. Large sailing vessels prefer it to Beaver harbor, on account of having more sea room to get away. Vessels frequently come-to off the harbor in from 6 to 8 fathoms with the light bearing about W.N.W.”2 Entering the harbor itself required more care: “vessels entering must be careful to avoid the shoal on the north side of entrance,” and the sailing directions specify a heading of about W.N.W. that opens the light “a little on the starboard bow,” passing the light-house at a berth of about 200 yards.2 The GNIS point for the harbor sits about 219 m (EPSG:3078) from the harbor light on Whiskey Point.3

Names

The harbor’s own naming history runs backward from what GNIS calls the present. “Saint James Harbor” became the federally official name only by a U.S. Board on Geographic Names decision dated 1 January 1979, recorded in the Phase I compilation of 14 April 1980 on the USGS “Beaver Island North” quadrangle.1 GNIS’s own variant-names table lists “Beaver Harbor,” “Beaver Island Harbor,” and “Harbor of Saint James” as spelling variants of that current name, but a classification built from spelling alone cannot see the underlying history, and here it is misleading.4

“Beaver Harbor” is not a spelling of “Saint James Harbor.” It is the name the 1855 Lake Survey chart’s own “Light Houses” table gives the station, “Beaver Harbor Lt. Ho.,”5 the name Scott’s Coast Pilot uses throughout in 1902,2 and the name the Beaver Beacon still used as late as 1962.6 That is over a century of operative use before “Saint James Harbor” existed as a federal name. This article therefore records Beaver Harbor and Beaver Island Harbor as former_names (a superseded name the record shows was replaced), rather than alt_names, a spelling of the current one, on the principle that a classifier working from spelling alone cannot know history. “Harbor of Saint James” is a genuine word-order variant of the current name and stays in alt_names.

A third, British-spelled form, “Beaver Harbour,” appears among the Strangite labels read off William H. Farmer’s 1853 Michigan sheet, evidenced only through Rumsey’s own on-map OCR index rather than a legible crop of the raster — a weaker attestation, recorded here with that caveat rather than treated as confirmed.7

“Paradise Bay” is a genuine nineteenth-century harbor name, not a modern invention. In an editorial letter dated May 10, 1849, James J. Strang says his party landed at E. J. Moore’s pier “at the west side of Paradise Bay”; the name was new to him, but he understood that sailors had long used it.8 Peaine Township then enacted an 1852 quarantine ordinance for the part of “Paradise Bay” north of the bar from Whiskey Point to Densmore’s Fish House, making it an official local description as well as sailor usage.9 Quaife repeated the pre-Mormon tradition in 1930, and the 1978 Historical Map’s “called Paradise Bay in the 1840’s” is independently borne out by the 1849 letter.1011

The name later coexisted with, and was largely displaced in charts by, Beaver Harbor. It returned visibly in modern promotional and civic use: the July 2000 Beacon reports a new “Paradise Bay Park” near the ferry dock,12 and the November issue records the Arranmore Park dedication “on Paradise Bay.”13 GNIS does not list it, so former_names records a real historical name without implying current federal status. The 2014 Michigan historical marker’s description of Holy Cross being moved toward the population center “on Paradise Bay” likewise refers to this harbor-front setting, not a separate mapped feature.14

Charting history, 1855-1911

The earliest chart held here, the 1855 U.S. Lake Survey sheet “North End of Lake Michigan Including the Beaver Island Group,” lists “Beaver Harbor Lt. Ho.” in its “Light Houses” table as a fixed light, 30 feet above the lake, visible 12.5 statute miles, before the 1870 tower rebuild recorded in Elizabeth Whitney Williams’s memoir.5 Its “Sailing Directions” box gives the distance from Waugoshance Light House to “Light House on South bluff, head of Beaver Island” as 28.75 miles, a direct predecessor of the compass courses Scott’s Coast Pilot would print 47 years later.5 A NOAA chart from 1900 (LS0) provides a dated intermediate snapshot, corrected to 1 February 1900.15

The 1907 chart of the Beaver Island Group carries a detailed Beaver Harbor inset drawn from an 1903 survey, labeling “St. James,” “Gallagher Dock,” “Beaver I. Harbor Lt.,” and “Life Sav. Sta.” — the earliest charted attestation of a named dock in the harbor.16 Scott’s 1902 New Coast Pilot for the Lakes is the fullest textual account: printed page 140 (PDF 191) gives the harbor’s sailing directions and anchorage note, and printed pages 262-264 (PDF 313-315) describe the alternative open anchorage in “the bight” and the comparative advantages large sailing vessels found there.2

Docks and their succession

The earliest named dock identified so far is the Gallagher Dock, built at the turn of the twentieth century by the Roe Brothers on more than 250 pilings on the harbor’s west side, according to a February 1965 Beaver Beacon retrospective; Booth Fisheries bought it and rebuilt it on the original pilings in 1917, and “Young” James Gallagher bought it from Booth in 1933.17 The 1907 chart’s Beaver Harbor inset independently labels “Gallagher Dock” on the west side at that date, a mapped-name attestation distinct from and earlier than the 1965 retrospective’s ownership narrative.16 The dock was demolished on 8 February 1965 to make room for expansion of the Yacht Dock, ending 65 years as a working fishing and yacht dock.17 See Gallagher Dock.

One of these wooden docks was filmed in use. Benjamin T. Gault recorded a steamer alongside at St. James, with passengers going aboard; his own notation reads “members of our party boarding the steamer for the return trip to Charlevoix.” The Chicago Academy of Sciences dates it only to ca. 1900–1942 and suggests the 1920s, and does not say which dock it is — so it shows the working harbour of the period rather than any one of the structures traced above.

Steamboat landing at St. James, filmed by Benjamin T. Gault; passengers boarding for the return trip to Charlevoix

A separate dock succession runs through the mid-twentieth century as a sequence of public projects. On 9 November 1955, fifteen residents attended a public meeting on a proposed village dock and recommended a site east of the harbor bar, between Gallagher’s dock and the Point.18 By July 1958 a pleasure-craft dock project was reported “practically assured” if the town raised its local share, following a Waterways Commission meeting.19 In March 1959, St. James and Peaine Townships and the Beaver Island Civic Association raised the local funds for a new dock between the LaFreniere and Gallagher docks, with about $40,000 expected from the State.20 Construction followed month by month through the year: pressure-treated California pilings were due 15 May 1959; the contract for the municipal pleasure-craft dock and a harbor master’s building was let to Sears Marine Construction of Traverse City by August;21 pilings were being driven into the harbor edge by September, and the T-shaped dock’s main stem and the harbor master’s office were nearly complete by October; and by November the dock was reported “ALL FINISHED” except for lighting, with dedication planned for the following summer.22 That dedication came on 6 August 1960, when Beaver Island’s new municipal dock for cruisers was dedicated with “simple ceremonies,” tied by the Beacon to a decade of local improvements and the Waterways Commission’s own account of the dock’s advantages.23 Mike Cull was appointed the dock’s harbor master that June, when its ice machine was also reported complete;24 Phil Gregg succeeded him for the 1961 season, appointed at the annual joint township meeting while also serving as commodore of the newly incorporated Beaver Island Yacht Club.25

The Yacht Dock grew again in the 1960s. Bids for a 90-foot extension with fourteen additional slips, harbor master’s building additions, a flag pole, and dredging to 5.8 feet were opened 4 December 1964, with Superior Sand and Gravel low bidder at $57,585; the same notice recorded 358 yachts registered at the dock the preceding season.26 That expansion is what made room for the Gallagher Dock’s February 1965 demolition.17 The ferry dock itself was rebuilt and widened in May 1970, when the Beaver Island Boat Company contracted Jewell Gillespie and Clyde Fogg to use sheet piling and fill to reduce summer congestion.27 A separate heavy-equipment dock near the Conservation dock was also under construction by September 1960, when the motorship Mackinac Islander delivered material for unloading oil drilling equipment.28

Dredging and federal harbor appropriations

Federal money for the harbor first appears in the record on 28 September 1955, when Congressman Victor Knox and Senator Frank Andrews visited by Conservation Patrol Boat No. 1 and announced a reported $11,000 for a Beaver Harbor survey and $37,000 for harbor improvements, with a Corps of Engineers delegation expected.29 That delegation arrived 3-7 October 1955: a six-person U.S. Corps of Engineers party from the Sault Ste. Marie Area Office set up shore triangulation and took soundings and bottom samples, preliminary work toward a possible dredged channel between two deeper areas of the harbor.30

Final federal approval followed on 13 March 1956, reported by telegram from Congressman Knox: $53,300 in federal money and $7,500 in local money, with Bureau of the Budget approval for the Corps of Engineers to proceed.31 The Michigan State Waterways Commission advised the island that the dredging contract was awarded as of 3 May 1956,32 and dredging equipment (a 180-foot barge-like craft, pipe on pontoons, tugs, and a crane barge) under contract to Lyons Construction Company of Whitehall arrived 23 June 1956 for an expected three-week job.33

The final field report, in August 1956, adds an unexpected find. Corps of Engineers representative Elmer Eckroad reported that a survey had found an area opposite the ferry dock below project depth; the dredge removed parts of an old sunken ship and a large pond-net stake before the area was cleared. The dredge departed 14 July, returned during high seas, departed a second time, and the survey and inspection personnel left the following day.34 No source held here identifies the wreck or supplies an engineering completion file; it stands as an unidentified obstruction recovered during the 1956 project, not a catalogued Beaver Island shipwreck.

The map’s “ringed with wrecked ships” list

The 1978 Beaver Island Historical Map describes Beaver Harbor as “ringed with wrecked ships” and prints eleven names. The annotation is valuable local memory, but it compresses several different propositions: that a craft existed, worked at Beaver Island, stranded there, was abandoned there, or left visible remains in the harbor. The evidence does not presently support treating all eleven as equally documented harbor casualties.11

The strongest direct harbor-remains evidence concerns Annabelle and Hattie Fisher. In November 1965 the Beaver Beacon reported that a local cleanup had removed their remains—along with those of Eagle—from in front of Henry Allen’s and Elizabeth Gallagher’s properties.35 The same newspaper reported in July 1976 that Annabelle’s rudder was intended for the Marine Museum.36 Helen Collar’s collected subject cards independently place the Hattie Fisher wreck on the harbor’s east side and say timbers of Captain Roddy’s flat-bottomed schooner Tom Paine remained visible off McCann’s Dock.37 The cards are archival oral-history evidence rather than contemporary casualty reports, but their locations make these three the best-supported members of the map’s harbor-remnant list.

The records also guard against assigning convenient but false loss dates. An 1885 report based on a bottle claimed Hattie Fisher had sunk off Point Betsie; the Charlevoix Journal immediately reported her safe at Milwaukee, and later notices put her at Beaver Harbor and offered her for sale at Saint James in 1893.38 Contemporary reports document Tom Paine carrying winter mail and working Captain Roddy’s Beaver Island post-and-tie trade, but no final loss date has yet been found.39

Several other names have good evidence of island service without equally good evidence of final abandonment in the harbor. Contemporary reports put Walaska loading at Beaver Island; a University of Michigan postcard record identifies the schooner X 10 U 8 there; the Collar cards record freight carried by Mary Ann and identify Clara A. Elliott as Beaver Island’s first fishing tug.4041 The latter is probably the map’s shortened “Elliot,” but that identification is inferential.4237 Contemporary newspapers consistently spell another map vessel Lillie Chambers, not “Lily Chambers.” They document its Beaver Island fishing work and a December 1903 Beaver Harbor stranding, but also say it suffered little damage and was hauled out; that incident was not its final loss.43

The remaining identities require restraint. A registered schooner Walhalla was abandoned in 1902, but the vessel record read so far does not connect its abandonment to Beaver Island.44 No evidence presently identifies the map’s “Tracy,” and several regional craft named Sea Gull or Seagull make an unsupported identity match unsafe. The map’s phrase should therefore remain an attributed synthesis, accompanied by the vessel-level distinctions above—not a substitute for casualty records, enrollments, or a surveyed wreck inventory.

The light at Whiskey Point

The Beaver Island Harbor Light, detailed in its own article, stands on Whiskey Point on the harbor’s north side and is treated there in full: an unspecified-color fixed light of about 30 feet stood by 1855, rebuilt in 1870 into the 34-foot white tower with a fourth-order red lens that Scott’s Coast Pilot records in 1902.52 The Life-Saving Service station stood about 165 feet to its west.2 Whiskey Point itself carries an older, separate history as the pre-lighthouse gentile fishermen’s rendezvous during the Strang period, treated in that article and not repeated here.

The harbor as ferry terminus

The harbor’s twentieth-century working life is inseparable from the ferries that use it. The Emerald Isle’s April 1955 arrival, maiden voyage, and public christening at Saint James are the harbor’s clearest single transportation milestone.45 Keeping the harbor open for that service was itself seasonal work: the Coast Guard cutter Sundew broke nearly three feet of ice in about two and a half hours on 28 March 1961, ahead of the Emerald Isle’s scheduled 7 April first run,46 and returned on 2 April 1962 to open the harbor again, with ice measured at twelve inches or less in places.47 The Beaver Island Boat Company’s full fleet and business history are modeled in that organization’s own article; this article records only the harbor infrastructure the company’s ferries depended on, including the 1970 dock rebuild.27

Significance

Saint James Harbor is the reason Beaver Island’s principal settlement sits where it does: a natural, chartable anchorage on the north shore, defended enough by Whiskey Point and its light to draw the harbor light, the Life-Saving Station, and later the Coast Guard’s seasonal ice-breaking service, yet open enough that large sailing vessels historically preferred the unenclosed bight to the east. Its twentieth-century record, from Corps of Engineers dredging through two generations of municipal docks to the demolition of a 65-year-old fishing dock to expand a yacht dock, documents a working harbor economy that shifted from commercial fishing toward pleasure boating and ferry tourism across the same years the docks themselves were rebuilt — and the harbor’s fixed role as the ferry terminus has held constant through that shift.

Open questions

  • What is the earliest securely dated documentary use of “Beaver Harbor” as a name, earlier than the 1855 chart?
  • Can the Farmer 1853 “Beaver Harbour” label be confirmed against a legible crop of the raster, rather than only Rumsey’s OCR index?
  • Is any record held anywhere of the identity of the “old sunken ship” recovered during the 1956 dredging?
  • Can enrollment abstracts, Coast Guard logs, harbor photographs, or BIHS accession files establish the final disposition of Sea Gull, Clara A. Elliott, X 10 U 8, Walaska, Mary Ann, and Lillie Chambers, identify “Tracy,” or connect Walhalla specifically to Beaver Harbor?
  • What was the LaFreniere Dock’s own construction history? It is named as a boundary marker for the 1959 dock site but is not itself modeled here.
  • Which municipal or Waterways Commission records document the 1959-60 dock’s engineering plans, final cost, and lighting completion?

See also

Footnotes

  1. U.S. Geological Survey, GNIS, Board on Geographic Names decision record for feature 620929, read directly. ↩ ↩2

  2. George Scott, Scott’s New Coast Pilot for the Lakes, 6th ed. (1902), pp. 140, 262-264 (PDF pp. 191-192, 313-315), data/local_documents/1902_scott-new-coast-pilot-for-the-lakes-6ed.pdf. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  3. Distance computed from the GNIS point for Saint James Harbor and the coordinates recorded on Beaver Island Harbor Light, both reprojected to EPSG:3078 (Michigan GeoRef, metres). ↩

  4. USGS GNIS, All Names (national). ↩

  5. US Lake Survey, “North End of Lake Michigan Including the Beaver Island Group” (1854-55), data/federal/noaa_charts/images/1855_NORTH-END-OF-LAKE-MICHIGAN-INCLUDING-THE-BEAVER-ISLAND-GROUP-NORTH-END_LC00010-00-1855WWL.jpg. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  6. Beaver Beacon, June 1962, “Fishing News” and “Thought for Today.” ↩

  7. William H. Farmer, 1853 Michigan sheet, per docs/data-quality.md, “The Farmer 1853 labels rest on an OCR index, not a legible reading”. ↩

  8. James J. Strang, “Editorial Correspondence—No. 5,” Gospel Herald, May 24, 1849. ↩

  9. Peaine Township quarantine ordinance, adopted April 5, 1852, printed in the Northern Islander. ↩

  10. Milo M. Quaife, The Kingdom of Saint James (1930), p. 87 n. ↩

  11. Beaver Island Historical Society, Beaver Island Historical Map (1978 revision). ↩ ↩2

  12. Beaver Beacon, July 2000, “Paradise Bay Park.” ↩

  13. Beaver Beacon, November 2000, “Twinning.” ↩

  14. Michigan Historical Marker “Holy Cross Catholic Church,” marker ID L2251. ↩

  15. NOAA Office of Coast Survey, chart LS0 (1900), data/federal/noaa_charts/images/1900_NORTH-END-OF-LAKE-MICHIGAN-INCLUDING-THE-BEAVER-ISLAND-GROUP-NORTH-END_00-7-1900.jpg. ↩

  16. NOAA Office of Coast Survey, chart LSMa (1907), data/federal/noaa_charts/images/1907_CHART-OF-BEAVER-ISLAND-GROUP-INCLUDING-THE-NORTHEAST-END-OF-LAKE-MICHI_LC0000Ma_02_1907_LS.jpg. ↩ ↩2

  17. Beaver Beacon, February 1965, “Beaver Tales” (Gallagher Dock retrospective). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  18. Beaver Beacon, December 1955, “Harbor Improvement.” ↩

  19. Beaver Beacon, August 1958, “PLEASURE CRAFT DOCK.” ↩

  20. Beaver Beacon, March 1959, “NEW BEAVER MARINA.” ↩

  21. Beaver Beacon, August 1959, “NEW DOCK.” ↩

  22. Beaver Beacon, September-November 1959, “MUNICIPAL PIER” and “ALL FINISHED.” ↩

  23. Beaver Beacon, September 1960, municipal-dock dedication notice. ↩

  24. Beaver Beacon, June 1960, harbor-master notice. ↩

  25. Beaver Beacon, May 1961, “Yacht Dock.” ↩

  26. Beaver Beacon, December 1964, “Yacht Facilities To Be Enlarged.” ↩

  27. Beaver Beacon, May 1970, “New Dock.” ↩ ↩2

  28. Beaver Beacon, September 1960, oil-dock notice. ↩

  29. Beaver Beacon, October 1955, report of the September 28 congressional visit. ↩

  30. Beaver Beacon, November 1955, “Harbor Survey.” ↩

  31. Beaver Beacon, April 1956, “Harbor Dredging O-K.” ↩

  32. Beaver Beacon, May 1956, Michigan State Waterways Commission notice. ↩

  33. Beaver Beacon, July 1956, “Harbor Dredging.” ↩

  34. Beaver Beacon, August 1956, “Final Harbor Dredging Report.” ↩

  35. Beaver Beacon, November 1965, “Old Eyesores Disappear,” data/newspapers/beaver_beacon/ocr/markdown/1965-11_Beaver-Beacon.md. ↩

  36. Beaver Beacon, July 1976, Beaver Island Historical Society bicentennial projects report, data/newspapers/beaver_beacon/ocr/markdown/1976-07_Beaver-Beacon.md. ↩

  37. Helen Collar Papers, Clarke Historical Library, “Subject Cards—Beaver Island and Michigan, Q-Z,” archival transcription, https://www.cmich.edu/research/clarke-historical-library/explore-collection/explore-online/michigan-material/beaver-island-history-helen-collar-papers/beaver-island-history/beaver-island-michigan/subject-cards---beaver-island-and-michigan-q-z. ↩ ↩2

  38. Charlevoix Journal, September 1885, report and correction concerning Hattie Fisher, data/newspapers/charlevoix/ocr/markdown/charlevoixjourna0730unse.md; later Charlevoix Sentinel harbor and sale notices in the bound-paper OCR. ↩

  39. Charlevoix Journal and Charlevoix Sentinel, contemporary reports on Captain Roddy, Tom Paine, winter mail, and the Beaver Island post-and-tie trade, data/newspapers/charlevoix/ocr/markdown/charlevoixjourna1883unse.md and data/newspapers/charlevoix/ocr/markdown/charlevoixjourna0719unse.md. ↩

  40. Charlevoix Sentinel, June 16, 1910, reprinted in Beaver Beacon, June 2010, data/newspapers/beaver_beacon/ocr/markdown/2010-06_Beaver-Beacon.md. ↩

  41. University of Michigan Library, David V. Tinder Collection, “Beaver Isl. Band,” postcard record identifying schooner X 10 U 8 at Beaver Island, https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/tinder/x-9470/tinder-rppc-018939. ↩

  42. Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Society, boatbuilding database entry for Clara A. Elliott, https://hub.catalogit.app/saugatuck-douglas-historical-society/folder/entry/boatbuilding-interactive-webpage. ↩

  43. Charlevoix Sentinel, 1903-04 reports reprinted in Beaver Beacon, September and December 2003 and November 2004; see data/newspapers/beaver_beacon/ocr/markdown/2003-12_Beaver-Beacon.md. ↩

  44. Bowling Green State University, Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, Walhalla, https://greatlakes.bgsu.edu/item/440498. ↩

  45. Beaver Beacon, May 1955, “The Emerald Isle.” ↩

  46. Beaver Beacon, April 1961, “Around the Island.” ↩

  47. Beaver Beacon, April 1962, “Coast Guard Ice Breaker Mackinaw.” ↩

Historical chart: North End of Lake Michigan including the Beaver Island
North End of Lake Michigan including the Beaver Island Group nautical chart,NOAA Office of Coast Survey, Historical Map & Chart Collection · Public domain (NOAA Office of Coast Survey)
Historical chart: Beaver Island Group nautical chart (1907).
Beaver Island Group nautical chart, 1907NOAA Office of Coast Survey, Historical Map & Chart Collection · Public domain (NOAA Office of Coast Survey)
Historical chart: John Farmer map of Michigan (1853).
John Farmer map of Michigan, 1853David Rumsey Map Collection · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 (David Rumsey Map Collection)

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

162 dated events · 1856–2025 · peak 12 in 1956These years on the timeline →

Read the document

393 pages, rendered from the held scan.

Saint James Harbor — p. 1
Page 1 of 393Shirley Cole et al., “Can someone fill in the "blanks" for me?,” Beaver Island Forum, January 14–24, 2006.Open the page image · Download this page
Jump to a page — 393 in all
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323337414549535761656973778185899397101105109113117121125129133137141145149153157161165169173177181185189193197201205209213217221225229233237241245249253257261265269273277281285289293297301305309313317321325329333337341345349353357361365369373377378379380381382383384385386387388389390391392393

135 of 393 pages linked here — every page to 32, then every 4th, then the last 16. With JavaScript, every page.

Sources

  1. Later community recollections place a historic fawn pen between the Ferry Dock and Yacht Dock, near the street, and identify an older dock building as the “Old Booth Dock” or “Young James Dock.” These memories help interpret the harbor’s remembered landmarks but do not provide a survey, construction date, or independent dock identification.
    forum · www.beaverislandforum.com · 00 · t000518
  2. GNIS feature 620929; feature class 'Bay'.
    federal · gnis · gnis_names
  3. Variant names: Beaver Harbor; Beaver Island Harbor; Harbor of Saint James.
    federal · gnis · gnis_variant_names
  4. Reports commercial fishing in Beaver Harbor, seasonal ferry service in St. James Harbor, and the municipal yacht dock.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1961-05_Beaver-Beacon
  5. The held seven-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 · 1961-05_Beaver-Beacon
  6. Reports commercial fishermen anchored in Beaver Harbor and increasing yacht traffic.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1962-06_Beaver-Beacon
  7. The held four-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 · 1962-06_Beaver-Beacon
  8. Describes more than fifty sailing yachts and cruisers filling available docks during the centennial celebration.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1960-08_Beaver-Beacon
  9. The held four-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 · 1960-08_Beaver-Beacon
  10. Reports the Emerald Isle’s April 21 arrival and maiden voyage and the April 23 public christening at Saint James.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1955-05_Beaver-Beacon
  11. The held four-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 · 1955-05_Beaver-Beacon
  12. Describes the Gallagher Dock as a commercial-fishing and yacht-dock site, records its turn-of-the-century construction and 1917 rebuild, and dates its demolition for Yacht Dock expansion to February 8, 1965.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1965-02_Beaver-Beacon
  13. 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 · 1965-02_Beaver-Beacon
  14. Retrospective account of the November 11, 1940 storm, the rising harbor water, boats running out or beaching, and the loss of fishing nets.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1968-11_Beaver-Beacon
  15. The held seven-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 · 1968-11_Beaver-Beacon
  16. George Scott, Scott's New Coast Pilot for the Lakes, 6th ed. (Detroit: Free Press Printing Company, 1902), pp. 140, 262-264.
    Described in this archive: Scott's New Coast Pilot for the Lakes.
    Read directly (PDF pages 191-192 = printed 140; PDF pages 313-315 = printed 262-264). Printed p. 140 gives sailing directions into the harbor past the light with a 200-yard berth and states 'good anchorage can be found on a line between the inner and outer docks.' Printed p. 264 separately describes open anchorage 'in the bight on the east side of the island' as preferred by large sailing vessels 'on account of having more sea room to get away' -- evidence the enclosed harbor itself was comparatively tight. Distances from Waugoshance to Beaver Harbor (12 + 8 statute miles) are also given on printed p. 262. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    local_documents · 1902_scott-new-coast-pilot-for-the-lakes-6ed
  17. Described in this archive: North End of Lake Michigan Including the Beaver Island Group, 1855 Lake Survey chart.
    Read directly. The 'Light Houses' table lists 'Beaver Harbor Lt. Ho.,' fixed, 30 ft above the lake, visible 12.5 statute miles -- the earliest charted attestation of the harbor's operative 19th-century name held here. The 'Sailing Directions' box gives 'From Waugoshance Light House to Light House on South bluff, head of Beaver Island, 28.75 miles.'
    federal · noaa_charts · images · 1855_NORTH-END-OF-LAKE-MICHIGAN-INCLUDING-THE-BEAVER-ISLAND-GROUP-NORTH-END_LC00010-00-1855WWL
  18. Described in this archive: North End of Lake Michigan including the Beaver Island Group nautical chart, 1900.
    Dated navigational snapshot between the 1855 and 1907 charts; corrected to 1 February 1900. Used here only to bound the charting sequence, not for a feature-level reading.
    federal · noaa_charts · images · 1900_NORTH-END-OF-LAKE-MICHIGAN-INCLUDING-THE-BEAVER-ISLAND-GROUP-NORTH-END_00-7-1900
  19. Described in this archive: Beaver Island Group nautical chart, 1907.
    Read directly. Carries a detailed Beaver Harbor inset based on a 1903 survey labeling 'St. James,' 'Gallagher Dock,' 'Beaver I. Harbor Lt.' (fixed red, visible 13 miles), and 'Life Sav. Sta.' -- a dated, named-dock snapshot distinct from Scott's contemporaneous 1902 prose sailing directions.
    federal · noaa_charts · images · 1907_CHART-OF-BEAVER-ISLAND-GROUP-INCLUDING-THE-NORTHEAST-END-OF-LAKE-MICHI_LC0000Ma_02_1907_LS
  20. The Strangite labels on Farmer's 1853 Michigan sheet include 'Beaver Harbour' (British spelling) in the open water east of the island, per Rumsey's own on-map OCR index of pixel coordinates, not independently re-verified against a legible crop here, since the held raster is not legible at those coordinates even re-cropped. Cited as a period map-label attestation of the British-spelled form, evidentially weaker than a direct reading.
    maps · rumsey · farmer_1853_michigan · full
  21. Reports a new 'Paradise Bay Park' near the ferry dock, on a sign reading 'We are installing a new Paradise Bay Park... a place to sit, stroll and enjoy the beautiful view,' completed by the same issue. Real-estate listings in the same issue advertise a 'Wonderful view of "Paradise Bay" and St. James' from Michigan Ave. This documents renewed modern use, not the earliest attestation; primary Strangite sources use the harbor name in 1849 and 1852. 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 · 2000-07_Beaver-Beacon
  22. A contemporary first-person landing account says the party made E. J. Moore's pier on the west side of Paradise Bay; Strang calls the name new to him but says he understood that sailors had always called the harbor that. This proves the name in the 1840s but not literally “always.”
    internet_archive · GospelHerald18471850
  23. Defines the quarantine ground as the part of Paradise Bay north of the shoal or bar from Whiskey Point to Densmore's Fish House. This is direct governmental use of the name and supplies internal harbor geography.
    charlevoix · issues · NorthernIslander18501856 · Northern_Islander_1850-1856_djvu
  24. Retrospectively says the harbor had been known as Paradise Bay before the Mormon settlement. The newly identified 1849 source provides the direct contemporary attestation missing from that footnote.
    internet_archive · kingdomofsaintja0000milo
  25. Described in this archive: Beaver Island History Map, 1978 revision.
    States that Beaver Harbor was called Paradise Bay in the 1840s. This is independently supported by Strang's May 1849 account.
  26. Reports the official dedication of the former Power Plant site 'on Paradise Bay' as 'Arranmore Park' during a visit by Arranmore islanders. Confirms 'Paradise Bay' as the informal name in use for the harbor-front shoreline at St. James by 2000, distinct from both 'Paradise Bay Park' (the 2000 park) and the official GNIS name. 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 · 2000-11_Beaver-Beacon
  27. Read directly. Records bgn_authority 'Board Decision,' bgn_date 1979-01-01, and date_created (Phase I compilation) 1980-04-14, on USGS map 'Beaver Island North.' 'Saint James Harbor' therefore became the harbor's federally official name only in 1979 -- more than a century after 'Beaver Harbor' appears on the 1855 chart -- which is why 'Beaver Harbor' and 'Beaver Island Harbor' are treated here as former_names (a superseded operative name) rather than mere spelling variants of the current name, contrary to GNIS's own 'Variant' label, on the principle that a classifier working from spelling alone cannot know history.
    federal · gnis · gnis_names
  28. Reports Congressman Victor Knox and Senator Frank Andrews visiting by Conservation Patrol Boat No. 1 on September 28 and announcing a stated $11,000 federal appropriation for a Beaver Harbor survey and $37,000 for harbor improvements, with a Corps of Engineers delegation expected. 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 · 1955-10_Beaver-Beacon
  29. Reports a six-person U.S. Corps of Engineers party from the Sault Ste. Marie Area Office conducting shore triangulation and taking soundings and bottom-material samples in Beaver Harbor, October 3-7, 1955, toward a possible dredged channel between two deeper areas. 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 · 1955-11_Beaver-Beacon
  30. Reports a November 9, 1955 public meeting of 15 people on a proposed village dock, recommending a site east of the harbor bar between Gallagher's dock and the Point, with St. James Township to seek Michigan Waterways Commission action. 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 · 1955-12_Beaver-Beacon
  31. Prints Congressman Victor A. Knox's March 13, 1956 telegram reporting final federal approval of the St. James Harbor dredging project: $53,300 federal and $7,500 local funds, with Bureau of the Budget approval for the Corps of Engineers to proceed. 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 · 1956-04_Beaver-Beacon
  32. Reports the Michigan State Waterways Commission advising the island that the harbor-dredging contract was awarded as of May 3, 1956; names no contractor. 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 · 1956-05_Beaver-Beacon
  33. Reports dredging equipment (a 180-foot barge-like craft, pipe on pontoons, tugs, and a crane barge) arriving June 23, 1956, under contract to Lyons Construction Company of Whitehall, for an expected three-week job. 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 · 1956-07_Beaver-Beacon
  34. Reports Corps of Engineers representative Elmer Eckroad's account that a survey found an area opposite the ferry dock below project depth; the dredge removed parts of an old sunken ship and a large pond-net stake before departing July 14-15, 1956. No wreck identification or engineering completion file is given. 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 · 1956-08_Beaver-Beacon
  35. Reports a July 31, 1958 Town Board meeting with the Michigan Waterways Commission at which a new pleasure-craft dock project was said to be practically assured if the town raised its local share. 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 · 1958-08_Beaver-Beacon
  36. Reports St. James and Peaine Townships and the Beaver Island Civic Association raising the local share for a new dock, with about $40,000 expected from the State, sited between the LaFreniere and Gallagher docks. 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 · 1959-03_Beaver-Beacon
  37. Reports the contract for the municipal pleasure-craft dock and harbor master's building let to Sears Marine Construction of Traverse City. 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 · 1959-08_Beaver-Beacon
  38. Reports Sears contractors driving long pilings into the harbor edge (September) and the main stem of the T-shaped dock, plus the harbor master's office, nearing completion (October). 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 · 1959-09_Beaver-Beacon
  39. Reports the new municipal dock complete except for lighting, with a dedication ceremony planned for the following summer. 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 · 1959-11_Beaver-Beacon
  40. Reports Mike Cull's appointment as harbor master, an office at the new municipal dock, and completion of the dock's ice machine.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1960-06_Beaver-Beacon
  41. Reports the new municipal dock for cruisers dedicated with simple ceremonies on August 6, 1960, tied to a decade of local improvements; the same issue reports the motorship Mackinac Islander delivering material for a separate heavy-equipment unloading dock near the Conservation dock.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1960-09_Beaver-Beacon
  42. Reports Coast Guard cutter Sundew breaking nearly three feet of harbor ice in about two and a half hours on March 28, 1961, ahead of the Emerald Isle's scheduled April 7 first run -- direct evidence of the harbor's seasonal ice-breaking dependency as a ferry terminus.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1961-04_Beaver-Beacon
  43. Reports Phil Gregg appointed harbor master for 1961 at the annual joint meeting of St. James and Peaine Townships, and identifies him concurrently as Beaver Island Yacht Club commodore.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1961-05_Beaver-Beacon
  44. Reports Coast Guard tender Sundew opening the harbor for ferry service on April 2, 1962, with ice measuring twelve inches or less in places.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1962-04_Beaver-Beacon
  45. Reports bids opened December 4, 1964 for a 90-foot Yacht Dock extension with fourteen additional slips, harbor master building additions, a flag pole, and dredging to 5.8 feet; Superior Sand and Gravel was low bidder at $57,585. The same issue reports 358 yachts registered at the dock during the preceding season.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1964-12_Beaver-Beacon
  46. Reports the Beaver Island Boat Company contracting Jewell Gillespie and Clyde Fogg to rebuild and widen the ferry dock with sheet piling and fill, to reduce summer congestion; work was expected to take about two weeks.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1970-05_Beaver-Beacon
  47. Directly reports the removal of the remains of Annabelle, Hattie Fisher, and Eagle from Saint James Harbor; this is the strongest evidence presently held for two vessels in the 1978 map's wreck list.
    beaver_beacon · 1965-11_Beaver-Beacon
  48. Reports that Annabelle's rudder was intended for the Marine Museum. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    beaver_beacon · 1976-07_Beaver-Beacon
  49. Charlevoix Journal, September 1885, Hattie Fisher loss report and correction.
    A bottle report alleging the vessel's loss off Point Betsie was immediately contradicted by news that she was safe at Milwaukee; it cannot supply the final loss date. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    charlevoix · charlevoixjourna0730unse
  50. Charlevoix Journal and Charlevoix Sentinel, 1880s reports on Tom Paine.
    Contemporary reports identify Captain Roddy's flat-bottomed schooner and its winter mail and Beaver Island post-and-tie service; Helen Collar's later subject cards supply the harbor-remains tradition. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    charlevoix · charlevoixjourna1883unse
  51. Beaver Beacon, September and December 2003 and November 2004, "One Hundred Years Ago," transcribing 1903-04 Charlevoix Sentinel reports.
    Contemporary reports consistently spell Lillie Chambers, document its Beaver Island service, and show that its December 1903 Beaver Harbor stranding caused little damage and was not the final loss. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    beaver_beacon · 2003-12_Beaver-Beacon
  52. Archival transcriptions identify Tom Paine timbers off McCann's Dock, Hattie Fisher's east-harbor wreck, Mary Ann freight service, and Clara A. Elliott as Beaver Island's first fishing tug.
  53. Confirms the 1867 schooner and its 1902 abandonment, but does not place that abandonment at Beaver Island.
  54. Independently identifies the 1882 tug; connecting it to the map's shortened "Elliot" label remains a probable inference.
  55. Identifies schooner X 10 U 8 at Beaver Island, supporting island association but not its final disposition in the harbor.

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

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Saint James Harbor”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/places/saint-james-harbor/, accessed [date], citing Shirley Cole et al., “Can someone fill in the "blanks" for me?,” Beaver Island Forum, January 14–24, 2006. (and 54 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.

BibTeXRIS