A U.S. Coast Guard lifeboat labeled “Beaver Island” sits on its launchway inside the station boathouse at St. James on Beaver Island, with another small boat pulled up beside it.
For decades, Beaver Island’s crews (and earlier life-saving crews before the Coast Guard era) were a key part of Great Lakes rescue work, based near the St. James Harbor/Whiskey Point lighthouse area. A local Beaver Island history notes a boathouse was built there in 1939, and Central Michigan University later purchased the decommissioned Coast Guard boathouse at Whiskey Point for its biological station operations.
What do you know or remember about the Coast Guard presence on Beaver Island — rescues, storms, or family connections?
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