Beaver Island ArchiveA primary-source archive & encyclopedia45°40′N 85°33′W · Lake Michigan
Search

Road

South End Road

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

Locator map: South End Road highlighted within the Beaver Island archipelago
Locator plate © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0); depths NOAA; names USGS GNIS. How the plates are drawn.
TypeRoad
Coordinates45.5733° N, 85.5637° WGoogle MapsDownload KML
WithinBeaver Island archipelago
ErasModern era
On this page
Locator map: South End Road highlighted within the Beaver Island archipelago
Locator plate © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0); depths NOAA; names USGS GNIS. How the plates are drawn.
Road
Intersects
Betsy Smith Trail · East Side Drive · West Side Drive
Coordinates
45.5733° N, 85.5637° WGoogle MapsDownload KML
Eras
Modern era
Concepts
transportationtoponymy
Within
Beaver Island archipelago

Summary

South End Road is a named road on Beaver Island’s current OpenStreetMap map. One held way carries that name, and its geometry is the whole route: about 4.9 km. It meets three other named roads, listed under intersects_road.

Evidence and limits

The name and the alignment are what mappers last entered, and OpenStreetMap is volunteered work rather than a survey: it settles neither the right-of-way nor who maintains the road. Where the name came from is a separate question. Plats, road-commission minutes, and island memory answer that one. Put an older spelling from any of them into alt_names or former_names, with the source that attests it.

Documented associations

These source-backed records provide context for the mapped route:

  • Peaine Township abandons old South End Road and accepts a new alignment, 1989 — At its April 3, 1989 meeting, Peaine Township reportedly resolved that the old county trespass road along Iron Ore Bay was abandoned and discontinued as a public road and accepted the new South End Road. This is a newspaper account of a township action, not the resolution text or a survey. It does not establish the exact old or new centerline, construction…
  • Beaver Island Light Station — Beaver Island Light Station — commonly called the Beaver Head Light to distinguish it from the harbor light at Saint James — stands on a bluff about 60 feet above lake level at the south end of Beaver Island. It marks the 9½-mile-wide channel between Beaver Island and North Fox Island, one of the principal shipping tracks of northern Lake Michigan. The…

Research status

The local newspaper and website corpus contains exact-name mentions in 22 file(s). Those files are research leads; the relation layer is added only when the surrounding source text establishes that the record involves this road.

Maps for this place

These Atlas plates provide regional context. They do not establish a precise boundary, current ownership, access right, operating status, or field condition.

  • EnvironmentSoils, wetlands, hydrography, and terrain
  • GeologyGeneralized geology and landforms
  • HydrologyMapped water and wetland context
  • AccessMapped routes, facilities, and protected areas
  • Land surveyPLSS geometry and historic GLO patent-location context

Sources

  1. A February 2020 resident exchange said traffic had used the route all season and that the road was drivable to Iron Ore Bay. This is a point-in-time community observation, not a road-condition survey or maintenance record.
    forum · www.beaverislandforum.com · 15 · t014976
  2. Current mapped road name 'South End Road'; grouped OSM way ids: 17761791. This is a volunteered map record, not a surveyed right-of-way or proof of historical naming.
    osm · roads

Added 2 August 2026 · revised 9 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “South End Road”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/places/south-end-road/, accessed [date], citing Joddy and vdetwiler, “South end roads,” Beaver Island Forum, February 5, 2020. (and 1 further source listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-09. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

BibTeXRIS