beaver island

News Releases

Legendary Female Lighthouse Keeper Elizabeth Whitney Williams Inducted into Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame

Michigan has more lighthouses than any other state (129) and over the course of the last two hundred years since the first was erected, nearly 50 women have served as keepers of these iconic beacons. Chief among those is Elizabeth (Whitney) VanRiper Williams who was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame on Tuesday, November 12, 2024 at ceremonies at the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center in downtown Detroit.

Read More
Promote Michigan Blog

Celebrating Michigan’s Irish Communities

Irish immigration to Michigan dates back to the early 1800s, with a heavy increase between 1845 and 1855 during a period of famine in Ireland, lasting well into the 1920s. Starting first in Detroit, the Irish made their way north and westward, landing throughout both the Lower and Upper Peninsulas where they found work in factories, fishing villages and copper mines. Nearly one-third of Michigan’s foreign-born population was from Ireland in 1870. Today, only about 10% of the state’s 9.9 million population is of Irish descent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Read More
News Releases

Beaver Island Birding Trail Hosts Fall Pelagic Tour — September 26-27

Fall is an ideal time for viewing migratory and pelagic (water) birds on Beaver Island—the most remote, inhabited island in the continental United States. During the Beaver Island Pelagic Birding Tour with Brian Allen and Darrel Lawson, Sept. 26-27, visitors to the island will have the opportunity to explore the newly developed Beaver Island Birding Trail (BIBT) while in search of Ring-billed and Herring Gulls, cormorants, pelicans and Caspian Terns.

Read More