Coal on Lime Island, circa 1970s. (Photo donated to the Archives of Michigan by John Q. Huey and David Huey) (Continue clicking on the photo to view it at a larger size.)

“…An Unusual and Unique Past…”

Lime Island, in the St. Mary’s River and three miles by water from Raber, constitutes one of the loveliest camping facilities on Michigan’s waterways, but as an historic site, it has an unusual and unique past as home to several different industries. Early French maps referred to it as “Plaster Island,” and material from the island was reportedly used to construct Fort St. Joseph in the 1790s. The island, once home to a lime kiln operation for making lime out of the limestone, still has remnants of the kilns. In the 1880s, Lime Island Manufacturing Company sold lime made in three kilns and shipped it out in barrels made on the island. Once that facility closed, the island served as a resort called the St. Mary’s Club from the 1890s until 1910, with a hotel hosted by Frances O. Davenport.

A Lime Island boat (Photo donated to the Archives of Michigan by John Q. Huey and David Huey) (Continue clicking on the photo to view it at a larger size.).

“…Keeping the Great Lakes Ship Traffic Moving”

The more recent use of the island as a ship refueling operation by Consolidation Coal Company’s Lake Coal Division played an important role in keeping the Great Lakes ship traffic moving. The Pittsburgh Coal Company originally built the coal dock where freighters could quickly refuel, opening the facility in 1912. A three-story home was transported across the ice, where it became the home for the superintendent, and other homes soon followed using the same method. The former hotel was converted into four apartments for worker housing.

In 1952, the company supplemented the coal operation with a fuel oil station, consisting of two huge oil tanks for No. 6 bunker oil, each capable of holding forty-three thousand barrels, or 1,750,000 gallons each. Other buildings housed heating equipment to warm the oil, as well as pumping equipment.

The coal and fuel oil dock on the broad, deep, St. Mary’s River connecting Lake Huron and Lake Superior made a convenient place for the ships to reload with fuel. As the workers never could predict when a large boat would stop for fuel, the facility ran twenty-four-hours a day, seven-days-a-week when the river was free of ice.

Jimmy Fulton, circa 1970s (Photo donated to the Archives of Michigan by John Q. Huey and David Huey) (Continue clicking on the photo to view it at a larger size.).

Life on Lime Island

Sometimes the island could be very busy. Jim Fulton, the superintendent of the operation, only got off the island twice in sixty-nine days for one stretch during the winter of 1971-1972. In 1975, more than eleven thousand tons of coal and fourteen million gallons of oil were loaded from the dock.
The one thousand-acre island could be confining, but a few full-time residents preferred the solitude year-around. In the late 1920s, approximately fourteen families lived on the island. Children of school age attended a one-room schoolhouse, complete with bell tower, until the early 1960s, when the last class of about six students was taught by a retired teacher who came from the mainland and spent the winter on the island. Very few new employees joined the workforce as there was seldom any turnover.

From Coal to Diesel Fuel

As Lime Island continued to refuel boats, propulsion technology on the freighters changed over to Diesel engines rather than the steam-powered craft fueled by coal or bunker fuel. The refueling operation closed in 1982, when the increasing use of No. 2 Diesel made the facility obsolete and Consolidation Coal Company turned over the entire property to the State of Michigan. The permanent residents were forced to leave the island without jobs to support them, leaving the buildings abandoned, only to be vandalized later. Today, the some of the buildings have been rehabilitated into rental cabins, and tent sites are available in both platform and open site form, and reservations can be made online. A spectacular view of the river and its stream of traffic await those who like a different kind of place to relax and enjoy the outdoors.