Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Tag: Charlevoix

  • Beaver Island Travel Index

    Beaver Island, Michigan, USA (September 2000) Beaver Island is the largest island in Lake Michigan and the third largest in the Great Lakes, at about 6 miles wide and 13 miles long. It is located 18 miles from Michigan’s lower and upper peninsulas. Native Americans settled Beaver Island originally and Irish immigrants began arriving by…

  • Scenic Lakeshores of Beaver Island

    Beaver Island, Michigan, USA (September 2000) While Beaver Island displayed amazing lakeshore scenery from practically every angle, three places stood out in particular Mount Pisgah Mt. Pisgah is an overgrown sand dune at the island’s northwest corner (map). It rises to 730 feet just a quarter mile from shore and it’s an obligatory climb. We…

  • Rural Scenes from Beaver Island

    Beaver Island, Michigan, USA (September 2000) One small town existed on Beaver Island — St. James — and barely a couple hundred people lived there. The remaining several hundred residents spread broadly across the island. Essentially, almost every view involved a rural scene around here. Hiking Miles of hiking trails literally covered Beaver Island. Many…

  • Inland Lakes of Beaver Island

    Beaver Island, Michigan, USA (September 2000) Beaver Island contained seven major interior lakes and several minor ones. Many of them were accompanied by marshes, bogs or drainage basins so the most direct route to them might not have always been the easiest. The major bodies of water from north to south were Font Lake, Round…

  • Ferry to Beaver Island, Michigan

    Charlevoix to Beaver Island Ferry Beaver Island, Michigan, USA (September 2000) There are two ways to get to Beaver Island (map), by air or by boat. We took the ferry from Charlevoix at the northwest corner of Michigan’s lower peninsula (map). Regular service was provided by the Beaver Island Boat Company although the schedule varied…

  • Shortest River… or Not

    What is a river, exactly? In all seriousness, what differentiates a river from a creek, a brook, a run or some of the other watercourses mapped on Toponymia? Clearly it comes down to size and volume. But where does one draw the line between what should be called a “river” and what should not? So…