South Fox Island

Probably one of the prettiest islands of the Great Lakes, South Fox Island, lies about 16 1/2 miles north-northwest of Cathead Point in Leelanau County, Michigan, making it the most isolated island in Lake Michigan.

The island is crescent shaped and has 11 1/2 miles of shoreline and twenty-one hundred acres of nearly unspoiled wilderness. There is some evidence that French explorers visited North and South Fox Islands in the early 1600s. South Fox has no natural harbor. Even today, when visiting the state land on the island, dockage can be risky! But sometimes a ship could hide behind the island from approaching storms. A lighthouse was erected in 1867 on the southern tip of the island.

During the summer of 1991, Doug McCormick, past caretaker of the Grand Traverse Lighthouse, filmed South Fox and her light. His father, James McCormick, was keeper there between 1916 and 1921. Mr. McCormick reflected sadly that the once grand light is in "horrible condition, overgrown with trees, one even growing through the roof, vandalized, but still solid." Mr. McCormick fondly recollects his happy boyhood memories of life on South Fox Island. On a personal visit in 1997, we inspected the light and adjacent keepers quarters with DNR approval. They are restorable we believe. Much support has already begun being partnered.

Help is needed to restore this light. The biggest obstacle, the island's remote location, has become less intimidating since we recently learned that our group will be given a boat way beyond our wildest dreams. However, ideas are needed along with a way to raise financial support and willing volunteer workers.

Until early May 2005, the last sentence here read, "We are in the beginning stages of hoping to rescue the light - if indeed it is even feasible." Now, having the very generous donation of a great boat in prospect and having received promising response from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), we feel more enc