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Beaver Island state fire tower

Also Beaver Island fire tower · Beaver Island lookout tower · State Fire Tower

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

Locator map: Beaver Island highlighted within the Beaver Island archipelago
Within Beaver IslandLocator plate © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0); depths NOAA; names USGS GNIS. How the plates are drawn.
TypeStructure
Coordinates45.6506° N, 85.5756° WGoogle MapsDownload KML
WithinBeaver Island
ErasModern era
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Locator map: Beaver Island highlighted within the Beaver Island archipelago
Within Beaver IslandLocator plate © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0); depths NOAA; names USGS GNIS. How the plates are drawn.
Structure
Coordinates
45.6506° N, 85.5756° WGoogle MapsDownload KML
Eras
Modern era
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Beaver Island
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Beaver Island History Map, 1978 revision

Summary

Beaver Island had a state fire lookout associated with the island’s forest-fire protection. Its existence is well supported, but the 1978 Historical Map’s printed “1942–1964” range is not. A 1929 report describes steel being shipped for a fire tower near Saint James, federal survey directions refer to the fire tower in 1931, and a 1934 local report announces equipment for a new tower. Those sources place at least one tower project well before 1942.1 23

The most likely source of the map’s 1942 date is a different event: conservation officer Karl Kuebler transferred from Pellston to Beaver Island that year. The held evidence does not say that he built the island tower then. The map’s 1964 endpoint coincides with a change of fire officers, but no report read says the tower closed or was destroyed in 1964.45

More than one federal point

Two National Geodetic Survey records must remain separate. QK0850 is designated BEAVER ISLAND LOOKOUT TOWER, has only an approximate position, and is now reported destroyed. QK0852 is an adjusted U.S. Lake Survey station about 1.3 km to the southeast. Directions to QK0852 in 1931 mention fire-tower and tower signs; a 1956 recovery says a lookout tower had been built directly over that survey point and was observed by the party.63

These may represent a tower and an intersected lookout point, a replacement, or two locations recorded for different surveying purposes. The 1978 map’s single symbol cannot resolve that problem. This article therefore uses QK0850’s approximate position as a representative point and marks the identity and geometry as probable.

Open questions

  • Was the steel reported in 1929 used in the tower already signposted in 1931?
  • Did the 1934 “new fire tower” replace an earlier tower, complete a delayed project, or stand at a second site?
  • How do QK0850 and QK0852 relate physically and chronologically?
  • What event, if any, occurred at the tower in 1942 or 1964?
  • When was the lookout abandoned and destroyed, and do DNR photographs or inventories survive?

See also

Footnotes

  1. Gobles News, October 10, 1929. ↩

  2. Charlevoix Courier, October 10, 1934. ↩

  3. National Geodetic Survey, station QK0852. ↩ ↩2

  4. Beaver Beacon, April 1982. ↩

  5. Beaver Beacon, May and November 1964. ↩

  6. National Geodetic Survey, station QK0850. ↩

Sources

  1. Contemporary newspaper says a boatload of fire-tower steel was taken to Beaver Island and that County Fire Warden Carson would erect a fire tower near St. James. It documents a 1929 project but does not prove completion, exact site, or identity with every later tower record.
  2. Contemporary local report says the U.S.S. Patrol made two trips bringing equipment for “a new fire tower to be erected here.” OCR is column-interleaved, but the sentence is legible across the source lines. It proves a new-tower project before 1942, not completion or exact location.
    charlevoix · issues · charlevoixcourie1213unse · charlevoixcourie1213unse_djvu
  3. Official record for a separate U.S. Lake Survey station monumented in 1903. Its 1931 directions refer to a fire-tower sign and tower sign and say islanders could direct a visitor to the tower. A 1956 recovery says a lookout tower had been built over the survey point and was observed. This adjusted point is about 1.3 km southeast of QK0850 and is not silently merged with it.
  4. Official non-publishable station listing gives an approximate position and reports the lookout tower destroyed. It supplies no construction, observation, destruction, or recovery dates in the current public display.
  5. Retrospective profile says Kuebler transferred from Pellston to Beaver Island in 1942 after earlier tower work at Pellston. It does not say the Beaver Island tower was erected in 1942; contemporary 1929, 1931, and 1934 evidence predates his transfer. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1982-04_Beaver-Beacon
  6. Records Bill Wagner as the new fire officer and Vernon Fitzpatrick as the former officer. It supports a 1964 personnel transition, not a tower closure or demolition.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1964-05_Beaver-Beacon
  7. Described in this archive: Beaver Island History Map, 1978 revision.
    Labels State Fire Tower, 1942–1964. Independent evidence places a fire tower or tower project on the island before 1942; no source read establishes 1964 as its endpoint.

Added 7 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Beaver Island state fire tower”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/structures/beaver-island-state-fire-tower/, accessed [date], citing Gobles News, October 10, 1929, Michigan news item. (and 6 further sources listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-07. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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