Summary
North Fox Island is a 3.47 km² member of the Beaver Island archipelago in Leelanau County, south of Beaver Island and northeast of South Fox Island. Strang-era sources call it Paros. Its settlement, transport and legal history is tied to Beaver Island even though its modern county jurisdiction differs from the immediate Beaver group.
History
John Farmer’s 1853 Michigan map equates “North Fox I.” with “Paros I.” Strang’s 1854 gazetteer says the Mormons were “just commencing a settlement” on Paros. The 1855 act organizing Manitou County grouped the Beaver group and both Fox islands in one county, and Strang’s Northern Islander records vessels, passengers, freight and fishing travel between Saint James and the Foxes. These records make North Fox part of Beaver Island’s lived network rather than an incidental offshore landmark.
The 2023 Beaver Island Master Plan continues the broader cultural scope while stating the administrative distinction: North Fox is in Leelanau County, is owned by the Michigan DNR Wildlife Division, was privately inhabited in the past and has an operational paved runway.
Geography
North Fox lies between the immediate Beaver group and South Fox. Its OSM shoreline has an area of 3.47 km² in Michigan GeoRef. GNIS records it as feature 633577 in Leelanau County.
Names
“North Fox Island” is the current GNIS name. “Paros” is the Strang-era variant, explicitly joined to the modern feature on Farmer’s 1853 map.
Significance
North Fox connects Strang-era settlement, commercial and passenger movement, fishing, aviation and state land management across the modern Charlevoix–Leelanau county line.
Open questions
- A household-level chronology of the Strang-era Paros settlement remains to be reconstructed from the Northern Islander, GLO records and later land records.
- Leelanau County parcel and deed sources are not yet collected for the Fox islands.
See also
The name, as attested
- 1853
Parosvariant
John Farmer's 1853 Map of the State of Michigan labels North Fox Island “or Paros I.”
Sources
- OpenStreetMap contributors, island polygons via Overpass API, retrieved 2026-08-01 (ODbL 1.0).OSM way 157474118; area 3.47 km² computed in EPSG:3078.osm · islands
- U.S. Geological Survey, Geographic Names Information System, Domestic Names (Michigan), refreshed 2026-08-01.GNIS feature 633577, North Fox Island, feature class Island, Leelanau County.federal · gnis · gnis_names
- John Farmer, Map of the State of Michigan and the Surrounding Country (1853).Labels the feature “North Fox I. or Paros I.” and places it in the same mapped island network as Strang's Beaver Island toponyms.maps · rumsey · farmer_1853_michigan · full
- James Jesse Strang, Ancient and Modern Michilimackinac (1854), p. 47.Under “PAROS,” says the island is a smaller counterpart of Patmos and that the Mormons were beginning a settlement there.
- Land Information Access Association, Beaver Island Master Plan 2023 (adopted 13 November 2023), p. 9.Includes North Fox in the Beaver Island archipelago, identifies Leelanau County jurisdiction and DNR ownership, and notes past private habitation and an operational paved runway.