Beaver Island

Way out in Lake Michigan, about two hours by ferry from Charlevoix, sits Beaver Island — the largest island in the lake and one of the most remote inhabited places in the state. Only around 600 people live here year-round, spread across two townships: St. James, the harbor town and only village, and Peaine, which covers most of the island and is largely wild, state-owned land. You reach it by the Beaver Island Boat Company car ferry (spring through fall) or by a short flight on one of two small airlines.

The island has one of the strangest histories in Michigan. In the late 1840s a man named James Strang led a breakaway group of Mormons here, founded the town of St. James, and in 1850 had himself crowned “king” — the only person ever crowned king on American soil. He was twice elected to the state legislature and started northern Michigan’s first newspaper before being assassinated by disgruntled followers in 1856. After that, Irish fishing families settled the island, and their roots run so deep that Beaver Island is still known as “America’s Emerald Isle,” with Irish pubs and a bay named Donegal. The little Mormon Print Shop in St. James is the last building from that era and now houses the island museum.

For buyers, Beaver Island is a different kind of place: quiet, beautiful, and genuinely isolated. People come for the fishing, birding, dark night skies, inland lakes, and miles of undeveloped shoreline. It’s important to go in with eyes open — groceries, building materials, and most services arrive by boat, the ferry doesn’t run in the dead of winter, and reaching the county offices on the mainland is a half-day trip. For the right person, that remoteness is exactly the appeal.