Porch Notes
High Island and the House of David
History and culture
Four miles west of Beaver Island sits High Island — uninhabited today, crowned by a sand dune said to be the highest point on any Lake Michigan island, and home to one of the odder chapters in Michigan’s history.
From 1912 to 1927, High Island was a working outpost of the House of David, a religious commune based downstate in Benton Harbor. Founded in 1903 by Benjamin Purnell — “King Ben” to the newspapers — and his wife Mary, the sect believed Purnell was a prophesied messenger and that the faithful, who took vows of celibacy and lived as vegetarians, would be among the saved. On High Island, roughly 120 to 150 members ran a lumber camp and a large potato farm that fed the colony. The operation largely collapsed in 1927 amid a scandal involving Purnell himself and a court fight in which the state tried to dissolve the community.
There is a somber footnote: the island is said to hold unmarked graves of colony members, buried without ceremony in the woods. And long before and after the colonists, several Odawa fishing families lived on High Island, until declining fisheries and the deadly 1940 Armistice Day storm led the last of them to leave.
Where to see it
High Island is undeveloped state wildlife land, reachable only by private boat from Beaver Island; there are no services. It's a destination for the truly self-sufficient.