DRUMMOND ISLAND

Region: Les Cheneaux Islands, Drummond Island & the St. Mary's River

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"There's so much to do on Drummond Island, but you have to know where to go," say one veteran visitor. From the road, the island can seem like merely a lot of trees because few roads offer views of its interesting shoreline. Full of coves and bays and little limestone islands, the shore, when open and sunny, is studded with wildflowers all summer long. The many inland lakes aren't readily visible, either. And there's not a lot of planned entertainment here. Fishing has long been the mainstay of the resort economy, and before that of resident Indians. Once subsistence farms, often Finnish, dotted the island. Today the limestone quarry on Humms Road south of the ferry provides some good-paying jobs. The island's year-round population is growing steadily, from 746 in 1980 to 835 in 1990 and 992 in 2000, due largely to retirees.

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Drummond Island is the largest U.S. island in the Great Lakes. The British built a fort here in 1815, having lost their Mackinac fort and fur-trading center to the Americans at the end of the War of 1812. (A reconstructed chimney and other artifacts from the fort can be seen at the island museum.) The Treaty of Ghent that ended the war agreed to appoint a joint commission to survey the boundary between the U.S. and Canada, using the main shipping channel as the border in the case of islands in the Detroit and St. Mary's rivers. Thus Drummond became American, and the British abandoned their fort in 1828.

The island's commercial hub extends along Townline Road from the M-134 four-corners north to Drummond village on the north shore and island-studded Potagannissing Bay, with its waterfront park and playground and historical museum. (This long word is pronounced "POT-uh-GAN-iss-ing.") A nine-hole public golf course and two tennis courts are west off Townline Road by the airport.

In winter there's a skating rink by the town hall. Ice bridges to Canada from Potagannissing Bay is marked by Christmas trees. They link Drummond with St. Joseph Island and Thessalon, Ontario, the only two places where U.S. snowmobilers can legally cross into Canada.

Some 70% of the island is state land, much of which is quite wild and not easily accessible. Some 5,000 people are on the island in summer, but they're so dispersed, it doesn't feel crowded. Though fishing, boating, and hunting form the basis of the resort economy, Drummond Island's attractions aren't limited to those pursuits. The protected coves and interesting, ragged rocky shoreline make for really interesting kayaking and canoeing.

Here the same limestone escarpment that forms the Garden and Door peninsulas is at the surface, not overlain by much glacial till. The thin alkaline soils make for unusual soil conditions that encourage specialized plants. With so many habitats - marshlands, cedar swamps, ridges of mature maples and pines, popple, plains and meadows, inland lakes and a marshy river - the island is a dream to botanists and naturalists. Rare ferns and an unusual variety of orchids can be found. Loons and an occasional bobcat and moose can be seen. Wolves are in residence on the island. (Drummond has no skunks, possums, or porcupines, however.) Far from cities, the night sky is very dark. Maple syrup-making continues to be a big thing on the island. So is morel month in May. As in so much of the Upper Peninsula, berry-picking is a special pleasure. Wild strawberries and raspberries typically ripen in mid-June and mid-July respectively. The May warbler migration is spectacular. The entire south shore is full of warblers that have flown across Lake Huron and stopped to rest and eat blue flies.

Drummond Island is ideal for people who like to explore interesting habitats by kayaking, canoeing, mountain biking, or hiking. The tourist association distributes Six Rides: A Mountain Biker's Guide to Drummond Island. But the island isn't all neatly signed and interpreted. To get out and explore the wild areas, you can take interior roads that turn into two tracks, then get out and walk.
"I'm gonna put Drummond Island on the map for kayaking just like the off-road trail system has for ORVs and ATVs," enthuses Jim Kelley of North Haven Rentals and Gifts. "We have the largest trail system in Michigan, and we will have one of the largest looped trail systems in the United States. We got the B.F. Goodrich National Trails Award for outstanding trails in 2010. Over 700 applicants, and we won it!" To lay out the Heritage Water Trail, Jim worked with passionate kayaker Dean Sandell, the former DNR recreation planner who oversaw Lime Island's transformation.

It's a misconception that the island was wrecked by pizza magnate Tom Monaghan and his 3,000-acre golf resort, the subject of much negative publicity in the late 1980s. Monaghan's enthusiasm and grandiose projects inspired much controversy. Monaghan sold the resort to Clif Haley, retired CEO of Budget Rent-a-Car, and the Bailey family, longtime Drummond residents and the owners of Yacht Haven. Renamed Woodmoor and, more recently, Drummond Island Resort and Conference Center, it has a famous golf course and sponsors a variety of interesting activities.

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