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Reef

Skilligallee Reef

Also Skillagallee Reef

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

Locator map: Skilligallee Reef highlighted within the Beaver Island archipelago
Locator plate © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0); depths NOAA; names USGS GNIS. How the plates are drawn.
TypeReef
Coordinates45.6765° N, 85.1727° WGoogle MapsDownload KML
WithinBeaver Island archipelago
ErasEarly American eraModern era
On this page
Locator map: Skilligallee Reef highlighted within the Beaver Island archipelago
Locator plate © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0); depths NOAA; names USGS GNIS. How the plates are drawn.
Reef
Coordinates
45.6765° N, 85.1727° WGoogle MapsDownload KML
Eras
Early American eraModern era
Concepts
maritimeshippingshipwrecksenvironment
Within
Beaver Island archipelago

Summary

Skilligallee Reef is the reef near Ile aux Galets identified by a 2023 Wisconsin Historical Society report as the site of the A.D. Patchin wreck on 17 September 1850. The record retains the reef as a separate feature from the island and its light station.

Evidence and limits

The source establishes a reef name in a dated wreck account and says it was near Beaver Island. The map point is the nearby Ile aux Galets representative point, not a surveyed reef coordinate, boundary, depth, legal name, hydrographic survey, present navigational condition, or claim that the reef is exactly coterminous with Ile aux Galets.

See also

Read the document

92 pages, rendered from the held scan.

Skilligallee Reef — p. 1
Page 1 of 92Tamara L. Thomsen and Caitlin N. Zant, *From Behind Masks: Underwater Archaeological Investigations from the 2020–2022 Field Seasons*, Wisconsin Historical Society Technical Report Series 23-001 (2023), p. 11.Open the page image · Download this page
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Sources

  1. Described in this archive: From Behind Masks: underwater archaeological investigations, 2020–2022.
    Names Skillagallee Reef as the place where A.D. Patchin wrecked on 17 September 1850, near Beaver Island in Lake Michigan. This is a source-specific geographic anchor, not an authoritative reef boundary, coordinate, depth, navigation condition, or present hazard description.
    maritime · wisconsin_shipwrecks · from-behind-masks-2020-2022-field-report
  2. Identifies Ile aux Galets as the nearby small island in the Grays Reef Passage approach; its representative point is used only as an area locator for the reef record, not as a reef coordinate or boundary.
    federal · noaa_coast_pilot · noaa-coast-pilot-6-chapter-11-2026-08-02
  3. Provides the existing representative map point for the nearby island; the result does not establish the reef’s exact position or navigational extent.

Added 2 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Skilligallee Reef”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/places/skilligallee-reef/, accessed [date], citing Tamara L. Thomsen and Caitlin N. Zant, *From Behind Masks: Underwater Archaeological Investigations from the 2020–2022 Field Seasons*, Wisconsin Historical Society Technical Report Series 23-001 (2023), p. 11. (and 2 further sources listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-02. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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