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

Western Shores Road

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

Locator map: Western Shores 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
Coordinates45.6901° N, 85.5950° WGoogle MapsDownload KML
WithinBeaver Island archipelago
ErasModern era
On this page
Locator map: Western Shores 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
Mrs Redding Trail
Coordinates
45.6901° N, 85.5950° WGoogle MapsDownload KML
Eras
Modern era
Concepts
transportationtoponymy
Within
Beaver Island archipelago

Summary

Western Shores 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 3.2 km. It meets one other named road, recorded 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:

  • Cathy Jones Quills — Cathy Jones Quills was a business name recorded at 34075 Western Shores Road on Beaver Island. A 2015 Charlevoix Courier assumed-name notice lists Cathleen Jones as the registrant. The filing establishes the road address and business name but does not describe the products, storefront, parcel geometry, or operating duration.
  • Beaver Islands State Wildlife Research Area — Beaver Islands State Wildlife Research Area is a Michigan Department of Natural Resources public-land designation covering substantial state-managed land in the Beaver Island archipelago, dating from the 1970s. Local reporting places 9,195.5 acres of the Beaver Island portion within the 2024…

Research status

The local newspaper and website corpus contains exact-name mentions in 7 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. Current mapped road name 'Western Shores Road'; grouped OSM way ids: 17756170. This is a volunteered map record, not a surveyed right-of-way or proof of historical naming.
    osm · roads

Added 2 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Western Shores Road”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/places/western-shores-road/, accessed [date], citing OpenStreetMap contributors, roads via Overpass API, retrieved 2026-08-01 (ODbL 1.0)..

Last revised 2026-08-02. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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