Friends of Beaver Island

5 hours ago

Oliver Point (often called Oliver’s Point) is one of those Beaver Island places that looks like just a quiet stretch of west-shore wilderness today, but there’s quite a bit of history behind it.

Where it is

Oliver Point is on the west side of Beaver Island, south of Left’s Point and north of McFadden Point, reached from the Mrs. Redding Trail area. The official geographic feature is a cape at roughly 45.6642° N, 85.6093° W.

Today it’s largely Michigan DNR public land. Township recreation documents describe a short trail from the Mrs. Redding Trail area to Lake Michigan, with about 0.4 mile of shoreline. One wrinkle is that access has historically involved crossing or approaching through private land, so the exact access situation matters.

Where the name came from

The best historical evidence connects the name to John Joseph “J.J.” Oliver, a Scottish-born fisherman who lived in the Beaver Island archipelago in the late 1800s. Helen Collar’s historical research and the Beaver Island Historical Society’s 1978 map say the point was supposedly named for him.

There’s an interesting little historical correction here. The old historical map says Oliver moved there from High Island, but census research places John Oliver and his family on Hog Island in 1880, and later in St. James Township in 1900. Current researchers therefore think the “High Island” reference was probably an old map error unless additional evidence turns up.

John Oliver’s wife was Marian, also recorded as Chawon Chanoodin. Older local notes apparently mixed her up with another Native woman named Angeline Wab-nin-kee, but a 1975 interview with Oliver’s grandson specifically corrected that identification.

The older Native history

This is where Oliver Point gets especially interesting. The Beaver Island Water Trail describes the area as historically containing a Native settlement associated with people from the Grand Traverse area, known as Peshabee/Peshawbe’s Town. The old route associated with that settlement eventually became connected with what we know as Mrs. Redding’s Trail.

So the Oliver Point area wasn’t simply an untouched piece of shoreline. It was part of a much older landscape of Native settlement, fishing, travel and trails on Beaver Island.

What Oliver Point is like today

It’s deliberately pretty undeveloped. A 2004 Beaver Island recreation study described Oliver Point as having a rocky beach, conifer-lined shoreline, a broad sedge meadow toward the north and a grassy meadow farther inland. Access was poor enough that the study ranked it low for recreational development and recommended essentially keeping it that way, with perhaps a carefully placed walking trail.

That’s probably been a blessing. Rather than becoming another developed beach or campground, Oliver Point remains a fairly wild Lake Michigan shoreline. The Water Trail still describes rocky beach, downed trees, conifers and meadow habitat.

Lake levels can change the place dramatically, too. In 2019, high Lake Michigan water forced the access trail northward and essentially eliminated the beach there for that season.

There’s even an ecological footnote: in 1967, the Beaver Beacon reported severe insect defoliation—about 50–80% leaf loss—in roughly 1,400 acres of hardwoods inland from Oliver’s Point. State forester Jack Lockwood reported that the trees were still producing normal buds and beechnuts despite the damage.

So what is it now?

I’d describe Oliver Point today as a historic, largely undeveloped piece of Beaver Island’s west coast—DNR land with public shoreline, a primitive access trail and very little development. It’s valuable as much for what isn’t there as for what is: no big parking area, developed campground or commercial attraction. … See MoreSee Less