It is stunning to realize how much Cheboygan County residents do not know about the county where they live. I am one of them.

Yesterday my son, daughter-in-law and myself took a pleasant drive up to Douglas Lake. What a lovely lake we discovered! We discovered that some places are very crowded with homes, other buildings, and recreation vehicles. Some roads were in very poor condition. We spotted an island in the lake which has homes on it. It is called Pell Island. We learned that this island is predominantly privately owned.

We also learned that Cheboygan County’s Douglas lake is Michigan’s 28th largest inland lake. It covers 3,395 acres. The deepest point is 79 feet. Shaped like a fish, it is 2’5 by 3’5 miles in length and width. It is one of the most beautiful and pristine lakes in Michigan. Because the University of Michigan Biological Station owns a huge amount of its shoreline, much of the shore is undeveloped. The biological station has existed there since 1901. Thus, it is one of Michigan’s quietest of all sport lakes. It is well known as a fishing lake, with bass, bluegills, pike, black crappies, walleye and other fish. There is a public parking place on North Fisher Bay. The Maple River is here, with good trout fishing.

The University Of Michigan’s Biological Station owns the entire eastern shore, as well as part of both the northern and southern shores, which account to about 10,000 acres around Douglas Lake. Most of this land is open to the public, but all of it is used for research and teaching. Biology students come for classes given by experts in many areas of forests and water.

The early European settlers in the Douglas Lake area were mainly French.

Douglas Lake area was formerly owned by the Indians. They signed it over to the government, but an area was to be set aside for the Indians, who survived by hunting and fishing and growing corn. An Indian village did exist and one day the men of the village went into Cheboygan to collect their government benefits. While they were gone, a sheriff and a land developer burned all of the Indian cabins except form 2. One of the unburned cabins has been moved to the grounds of the Cheboygan County Museum.

Prior to the burning, the Indians had been billed taxes for their property. Their priest told them that they did not need to pay taxes, for they were in the care of the government. So they did not pay them. The land developer purchased the property at a sale of land where owners had not paid their taxes. He ordered the Indians to leave. They did not leave. They thought that they were promised protection by the federal government. But now they were homeless and had to leave the area.

At one point in my life, I was in the Cheboygan Hospital with a lady who was a relative of the man who burned the Indian’s cabins. She told me that he was drunk that day. He had caused one of Cheboygan County’s greatest tragedies. Those Indians left Cheboygan County. The Cheboygan County Indians were a peaceful people. Once again the Indians lost!