Qualla: High Island (Michigan) https://qualla.com/high-island-michigan en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:18 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/f/0/5/h/high-island-michigan-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: High Island (Michigan) https://qualla.com/high-island-michigan High Island (Michigan): Introduction https://qualla.com/high-island-michigan/ Photo credit Phizzy (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. Somewhere on High Island, thirty paces from where a large tree once stood overlooking the northeast harbor, a royal treasure may lie buried. The treasury of James Jesse Strang, the self-crowned king of Beaver Island who ruled his polygamist Mormon kingdom from 1850 until an assassin's bullet felled him in 1856, was supposedly hidden here by a loyal follower as the wounded monarch was carried off to Wisconsin. But the island was logged shortly after, and the landmark tree vanished along with every other old-growth specimen. The treasure has never been found. It is the kind of story that fits High Island perfectly: a place where improbable histories pile up like the wind-driven sand that gives the island its name.

Read more: High Island (Michigan) on Qualla

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

]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/f/0/5/h/high-island-michigan-wp/f05h-high-island-michigan-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full High Island (Michigan): A Dune Above the Lake https://qualla.com/high-island-michigan/ Photo credit Phizzy (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. High Island sits in Lake Michigan, roughly four miles west of the much larger Beaver Island and less than two miles from Trout Island. It belongs to the Beaver Island archipelago, and the state of Michigan owns it, managing it through the Department of Natural Resources as part o...

Read more: High Island (Michigan) on Qualla

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

]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/f/0/5/h/high-island-michigan-wp/f05h-high-island-michigan-a-dune-above-the-lake.mp3 0:06 2 full High Island (Michigan): The Celibate Farmers of the House of David https://qualla.com/high-island-michigan/ Photo credit Phizzy (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1912, a millenarian religious sect called the House of David, based in Benton Harbor, Michigan, established a timber-cutting and truck farming operation on High Island. The commune's members had taken vows of celibacy and practiced vegetarianism, and they turned the island's s...

Read more: High Island (Michigan) on Qualla

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

]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/f/0/5/h/high-island-michigan-wp/f05h-high-island-michigan-the-celibate-farmers-of-the-house-of-david.mp3 0:06 3 full High Island (Michigan): The Odawa Fishermen Who Stayed https://qualla.com/high-island-michigan/ Photo credit Phizzy (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. Before, during, and after the House of David era, High Island was home to several extended families of Odawa (Ottawa) Native Americans who made their living fishing the waters of the Beaver Island archipelago. The island supported a public school as late as 1936, evidence of a co...

Read more: High Island (Michigan) on Qualla

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

]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/f/0/5/h/high-island-michigan-wp/f05h-high-island-michigan-the-odawa-fishermen-who-stayed.mp3 0:06 4 full High Island (Michigan): Plovers on the Last Good Beach https://qualla.com/high-island-michigan/ Photo credit Phizzy (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. High Island's Great Sand Bay, on the western side where the great dune rises, is one of the last suitable Great Lakes nesting sites for the piping plover, a small shorebird listed as endangered in Michigan. The plovers nest on the open sand, their pale plumage blending with the b...

Read more: High Island (Michigan) on Qualla

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

]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/f/0/5/h/high-island-michigan-wp/f05h-high-island-michigan-plovers-on-the-last-good-beach.mp3 0:06 5 full High Island (Michigan): The King's Lost Gold https://qualla.com/high-island-michigan/ Photo credit Phizzy (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. The legend of Strang's treasure is High Island's most colorful thread. James Jesse Strang declared himself king of Beaver Island in 1850 and ruled a community of followers for six years until he was shot by disgruntled members of his own flock in June 1856. As the mortally wounde...

Read more: High Island (Michigan) on Qualla

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

]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/f/0/5/h/high-island-michigan-wp/f05h-high-island-michigan-the-kings-lost-gold.mp3 0:06 6 full