Summary
Gull Island is the westernmost island in the Beaver Island group, according to a 1998 Charlevoix Courier account of the Carl D. Bradley disaster. OSM records its island polygon at approximately 1.09 km²; GNIS classifies it as an island.
The 2023 Beaver Island Master Plan places Gull Island within the federally owned Michigan Islands National Wildlife Refuge and lists it among the archipelago’s uninhabited outer islands. The island also appears repeatedly as a maritime reference point. The Courier report says the 615-foot Carl D. Bradley went down about 12 miles off Gull Island on November 18, 1958; it describes the Coast Guard search and rescue, but does not make Gull Island the wreck site. The island’s ecological and navigational significance therefore should not be conflated with the offshore casualty location.
Open questions
- What federal refuge records document the acquisition and management history of Gull Island?
- Can the Carl D. Bradley casualty position be reconciled with nautical charts and represented as a separate wreck site or event article?
- Are there bird, nesting, or other ecological surveys for the island itself?
Sources
- OpenStreetMap contributors, island polygons via Overpass API, retrieved 2026-07-28 (ODbL 1.0).Area 1.09 km² computed in EPSG:3078.osm · islands
- U.S. Geological Survey, Geographic Names Information System, Domestic Names (Michigan), retrieved 2026-07-28.GNIS feature 627511; feature class 'Island'.federal · gnis · gnis_names
- Beaver Island Master Plan, 2023 update.Places Gull Island among federally owned islands in the Michigan Islands National Wildlife Refuge and among the uninhabited outer islands of the archipelago.
- Charlevoix Courier, November 1998, Carl D. Bradley anniversary report.Reports the 1958 loss of the Carl D. Bradley about 12 miles off Gull Island, the Coast Guard rescue operation, and Gull Island’s position as the westernmost island in the Beaver group; it does not locate the wreck at the island.