Qualla: Fox Islands (Lake Michigan)

Fox Islands (Lake Michigan): Introduction

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sjconaway, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Anishinaabe name for these islands is animookaadjiinon, and the story behind it is ancient. A young Anishinaabe woman, sent to seek her sacred vision, ran away with her dog to an abandoned island. When warriors from her village discovered her and her family there, her brother killed them all. The Anishinaabe outlawed animal-human marriage and named two islands after the woman and her dog husband. European mapmakers translated the name into something simpler: Fox Islands. But the original Odawa story, recorded by Jane Willetts Ettawageshik and translated by Howard Webkamigad, carries a gravity that the English name does not -- a reminder that these two specks of land northwest of Michigan's Leelanau Peninsula have been meaningful to the people of this region for far longer than any lighthouse or airstrip has stood on them.

Image: Sjconaway | CC BY-SA 4.0

Fox Islands (Lake Michigan): Reef and Ruin

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Phizzy (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. The Fox Islands sit in open Lake Michigan about fifteen miles northwest of Cathead Point, near the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula, and roughly the same distance southwest of Beaver Island. They form part of an archipelago that steps across the northern lake like a broken bridge. T...

Image: Phizzy (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Fox Islands (Lake Michigan): Two Lights on South Fox

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cmarcukaitis, CC BY-SA 4.0. South Fox Island is the larger of the two, with a private paved runway long enough to accommodate jet aircraft and a pair of lighthouses standing at its southern tip. The first South Fox Island Light was built in 1867 -- a brick house with an attached tower that guided ships thro...

Image: Cmarcukaitis | CC BY-SA 4.0

Fox Islands (Lake Michigan): The Grass Strip on North Fox

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cmarcukaitis, CC BY-SA 4.0. North Fox Island is smaller than its southern neighbor but holds something rare: a public grass airstrip, designation 6Y3, maintained by volunteers from the Recreational Aviation Foundation. The runway stretches 3,001 feet long and 100 feet wide, sitting at an elevation of 639 fe...

Image: Cmarcukaitis | CC BY-SA 4.0

Fox Islands (Lake Michigan): Bought, Sold, and Returned

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sjconaway, CC BY-SA 4.0. Both Fox Islands have passed through private hands. Real estate magnate David V. Johnson purchased North Fox Island in 1994 for $1.3 million and sold it back to the state of Michigan for $2.2 million at the end of 2000. Johnson also owned about two-thirds of South Fox. He had pro...

Image: Sjconaway | CC BY-SA 4.0

Fox Islands (Lake Michigan): Anishinaabe Country

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sjconaway, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Fox Islands hold deep significance for three federally recognized tribes of Odawa peoples in Michigan: the Grand Traverse Band, the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, and the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians. These Anishinaabe communities have occupied northern Mi...

Image: Sjconaway | CC BY-SA 4.0