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Post by Deleted on Jul 22, 2020 4:11:20 GMT
Not much is known of this small island. At one point it was home to the only king to rule American land, King James Strang. I spent many nights here, After my trip I calculated that I spent 58 days on the island. My original journey was to search for the treasure of James Strang. One of the few lost treasures left in the Midwest. Unfortunately I found nothing of monetary value, only historical artifacts, which have been turned over to the historical society of Michigan by choice. Artifacts ranged from old farm tools to arrowheads and Indian pottery. Much old waste was also found that was left in its place. upon arriving my raft was destroyed by a storm and most of my technology was lost, I retained my backpack with my metal detector, tent, radio and a few other basic supplied. I had planned for this exact circumstance. about 3 weeks in my solar charger has stopped working. with no real tools I was unable to repair it and my radio batteries died a few days later. I thought i would spend the rest of my life on the island, but to my good fortune a visitor to the island had arrived on boat, a bird watcher of all people. I was rescued by my new friend who came to the island and he transferred me back to my car, my long journey back started after he gave my car a jumpstart and some gas as I had no money.
This entire event was life changing. Even using a keyboard right now seems foreign to me, Ive forgotten how to spell many words. I became primitive again. Days would pass without me even thinking about my life back home. But now im back, I have attached my map drawn from memory as i had no way on the island to accurately mark my paths other than a notebook and pen. Hopefully this map will help travelers to the island in the future. Its not exactly hostile, but it is remote. There is no help, no safety or shelter, not even the state seems to care about this island.
If anyone has any questions about the island or my trip feel free to ask, thank you for reading.
Attachments:High island life.kmz (13.7 KB)
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Master Cartographer
April 2015 - Mar 28, 2024 17:18:13 GMT
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Post by syzygy on Jul 22, 2020 8:55:48 GMT
Hallo Amigo! Welcome back to civilisation! (: What a great adventure with the interesting background story of James Strang! Your map is essential (and exceptional) for future visitors! - Thank you sharing all this around here! ... How is that, there are no photos? I would love to see those bogs, lookout dunes, the cave shelter, Lake Maria which you have missed even to mention, ending do not to forget the artifacts you have found! (BTW, were you given an award (money) for handing over your findings?) Also please tell some more about wildlife (trees, shrubs, birds, fish, insects, mammals(?), ...) and all about this strange story happened on you! *** Pretty good resolution 3D surface of the island on GE, so hights and depressions* are nicely visible on tilted view and by elevation exaggeration set to level 3. (*If you check your "indian grove" on 2012 imagery, you will see, it is a small swamp. Some more you can find a mile to NW, all around your "historical dump site") ... A palette of imagery dates are avilable, so artificial patterns in vegetation also easily can be detected. On the picture below I have signed the only one satellite imagery articfact (a seeming line) with orange. All the other lines are real. Many of those are signs of human activity - check scars of machinery equipment at the "L-shape" and at your (other L-shape!) "potato-field"-, but also natural formations -just as your mapped range on the upper left- are clearly visible on this imagery frame from 1999. ... And what was with those "sounds"?!? - Hair stood up on my neck reading on one of your signed sites: "Strange sounds, not searched. possibly haunted" On the NW corner of the signed area, a local hill I have spotted on 3D view: Well, I am not a treasure-hunter, but listen to me: the swag will be somewhere overthere..! (;
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2020 4:27:21 GMT
Thank you and im glad you enjoyed the post!
Ill tell a bit more of the story now that people are interested. On day one I drove up to Charlevoix MI, after a few hours journey I had reached the Ferry docks of the beaver island boat co. I had parked my car in the forest on and old dirt road and I boarded the ferry on foot with my luggage. One tote that I brought had an inflatable raft. The other tote contained my laptop, gps tracker, food, and my extra clothes. My ferry took off and i was headed for beaver island, an island where king Strangs treasure had been discovered before. I reached the docks at beaver island and the day was already getting old and I was running out of time. After an hours walk I reached the "Donegal bay" of beaver island and I started to inflate my raft. it was maybe 4-5 o'clock in the after noon by the time I pushed my raft off the shore. This was a dire mistake. In the evening the winds picked up and it had started to rain. My inflatable boat was filling with water and it was slowing me down, the tote with my supplies was causing the back half of the boat to sink further into the water. And even worse i had begun to drift south being carried by the winds. When i was about 3/4ths of the way there i was extremely tired and could no longer row the ores, my boat was sinking and i had no choice but to abandon the boat. i got as close as i could and then my boat sank, it must have had a small hole caused when I left the shore because it became soft. the rest of my equipment was lost and now sits somewhere under the lake. The seabag I carried on my back made it impossible to swim and i was being pulled down, so i took off my bag and swam the remaining 400 feet or so with the bag dangling in the water from my hand. I was so tired I was only able to keep my nose above the water. Eventually i reached the shore line about 1000 feet south of the docks where i had planned to go. I was so tired and scared that i wanted to die, i laid on the beach for maybe an hour or 2 as the sun set. Then the cold came in and i knew i needed to enter to forest for shelter. I walked north until i saw the path i intended to take into the center of the island. But at one point I lost the path and began to wonder through the darkness. I ended up near a small swamp at the north of the island, I saw the water again and was so discouraged i could not walk anymore. I pulled out my "space blanket" wrapped myself in it and fell asleep. The next day i woke up at sunrise covered is mosquito bites and i was generally pissed off, but then i remembered that i was alone, my phone was not working because of the water and my gps/laptop had sank to the bottom of the lake. I was marooned with only a few supplies and only a day or 2 worth of food.
So this is why i was not able to take photos or get an accurate map. I was without all modern technology. The equipment i had consisted of a handheld butane torch, metal detector, tent, fishing rod, radio, solar charger, a few basic hand tools, heat reflector/space blanket. A pretty good setup ill admit but i had still lost most of my safety equipment. In the next day i spend most of it trying every frequency on my radio to get help. whenever I would hear static on the frequency i would scream "SOS PLEASE HELP IM STRANDED ON HIGH ISLAND, SOS PLEASE SEND COAST GUARD TO HIGH ISLAND" But no response was heard other than a few words here and there, I could not make anything out. so i started to walk along the beaches on the third day sending out an SOS on my radio but nobody ever came. By the 5th day i was starving and had given up hope on the radio. I was simply too far from the shore and the only people to hear me would have been the small population on beaver island. I had come to terms with the fact that the island would be my home. so i began to explore like i intended. I made my way back to the main east west path and i found the potato grove! It was a life saving find and there where hundreds of potatoes. They must have been farmed here and left in the ground to grow after the people left the island. I ripped a potato out of the ground and i washed it off and took a bite. It was disgusting and hard to chew, it even made me throw up after. So i took a few potatoes and found a place to camp in a old field of sparse trees near the place i marked "the L" . I started a fire here and threw the potatoes into it, then after they had turned black i kicked over the fire and waited for them to cool down. they where black and hardened but after pealing off the burned parts there was a bit of delicious edible potato inside. This was my first meal of food from the island. there was enough potatoes to continue my stay for maybe even as much as a year, they where everywhere. but later i took up fishing, the fish gave me so much more energy and sometimes i would even mix the 2 into a mash of potato and random fish meat.
A few weeks in i had found a round piece of iron, i believe it was a door to a steam boiler or a small furnace.It was covered in rust so i took it down to the sore and rubbed it with a rock untill most of the rust was gone. but i used it to cook my fish and potatoes on, and occasionally a bird.
As for the artifacts i found no i was not paid for them and i did not even personally hand them to the museum, Technically i was not supposed to be on this island so i did not intent to incriminate myself. also if they knew i was after king strangs treasure I might get in a lot of trouble. not that anyone is looking for this treasure other than me and a select few others but, its technically government land and they would not like me being there. All the items that i brought back consisted of 90% native artifacts and just 2 modern metal artifacts. I found many modern artifacts but most where left as they had no real significance like nails, bolts, metal fragments. But I did find a few silver coins and a hand held fire starter that must have belonged to somebody on the island as i found them near a home on the west side of "the L".
as far as the wildlife goes im not sure i will be of too much help, Im not really well versed in biology I will do my best! for the fish im fairly sure that 90% of what i caught and ate was trout and carp. I caught i few fish i did now know about but this one yellow one I ate made me sick and i threw up for 2 days. it was quite big and bright yellow, when i cut it open it had many more bones than the fish i was used to and the meat was a darkened white. as for the insects imagine north American insects + Canadian insect and then multiply that by 10. That area I marked on the map was home to 3 visible bee hives and too many insects to manage. I avoided this area more than any other. As well as honey bees there was wasps further south and i had been stung wile exploring the south of the island many times. it was so bad that at night i would have nightmares about being swarmed by them. as well as the bees and wasps there where beetles, spiders, mosquitos, (these small mosquitos i have heard them be called nats/nits but i dont know what they are), fly's, horsefly's, dragonfly's, ladybugs, stick-bugs, preying mantis and a few others whom i cant name. The birds though are the pinnacle of the island,they are incredible and their calls are like a orchestra. they seem to come in all colors, red, blue, yellow, black, orange, brown, even a few pure albino birds. I recognized a lot of birds from my home in the lower Midwest but there where these small yellow birds that where new and enchanting to me. I looked up online they are called "warblers" and they had many nests in the trees by my home because i would hear them every morning. along with the small birds i saw a few falcons and cranes around the shoreline. I swear once i saw a flamingo but it was white. it only stool on one leg and i saw it from far away but i still dont know what it was.
Now for the strange sounds. I have no idea what i heard, i don't believe in ghosts or spirits. but i had only walked in this area a handful of times before. One time i walked through i heard a breathing right in my ear as if somebody head set their head on my neck and exhaled. another time i had heard a human man scream, I screamed out back and shouted "hello is somebody out there!" and i ran towards the northwest where i heard the sound come from and i started calling out "1.2.3.4.1.2.3.4" (a way lost people in north America use their voice to find each other) I was sure somebody was there but after maybe 2-3 hours of searching and nobody saying anything I walked south to find the east west trail. and after I got to the trail i realized exactly where i had been and where the sound came from and i was more scared than i had ever been since my raft sunk. another time i had been near the area and once again i heard a human voice, it just let out a sigh. and immediately i turned and ran back to my home-site. After that last event i never visited the northeast of the island again. I still don't know if i believe in spirits but i cant explain what i felt and heard there.
And no i never did get to explore that hill top in the "haunted zone" i never even knew it was there to be honest.
As for lake maria i never really went there more than once, a trail leads around the lake already. but i dint not consider the water safe to drink. or it looked less safe than the lake Michigan water and it was very swampy. i tried to fish out of there a few times but all i found was turtles and frogs. a small steam led from the lake or it was as hot spring near the lake i could not tell because the water was cold but flowing, i often boiled that water from that stream labeled "fresh water". the right side of the island was very swampy but indian grove was only 1/3rd a swamp. there where many rotting stumps and broken stones on the ground east of this area and i just called it Indian grove because it was very clearly inhabited by the natives.
Thank you for reading! maybe one day i will write a book on my full experience. I will go back someday
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Master Cartographer
April 2015 - Mar 28, 2024 17:18:13 GMT
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Post by syzygy on Jul 26, 2020 22:33:56 GMT
Fascinating read. Also typing this was good to regain your fine motoric abilities! (: (it seems you had the right dose of luck to keep your physical abilities and hard balls enough to keep your mental health)
Besides some details still not best clear for me, it sounds a great story of an unforgetable adventure! If you are thinking about to write a book of it, then feel free making your drafts here!
Later on probably I'll have further questions, now these:
1.: was not possible, was it too dangerous to swim back to Beaver Island? (I do not know weather conditions or water characteristics of the Great Lakes, but each year we have a "Balaton-swim-across" here, which is a public swimming race with a 5 kilometers distance. (I do not say, that I would dare to try!))
2.: could not you set up big fires on the shore trying to signal?
3.: how was it, that no one has been missing you, or that nobody knew where you have gone? (None of my business - you don't have to answer.)
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2020 3:50:52 GMT
Fascinating read. Also typing this was good to regain your fine motoric abilities! (: (it seems you had the right dose of luck to keep your physical abilities and hard balls enough to keep your mental health) Besides some details still not best clear for me, it sounds a great story of an unforgetable adventure! If you are thinking about to write a book of it, then feel free making your drafts here! Later on probably I'll have further questions, now these: 1.: was not possible, was it too dangerous to swim back to Beaver Island? (I do not know weather conditions or water characteristics of the Great Lakes, but each year we have a "Balaton-swim-across" here, which is a public swimming race with a 5 kilometers distance. (I do not say, that I would dare to try!)) 2.: could not you set up big fires on the shore trying to signal? 3.: how was it, that no one has been missing you, or that nobody knew where you have gone? (None of my business - you don't have to answer.) Haha thank you I appreciate it! And actually my mental health has drastically improved. I never realized how addicted I had been to the internet, my computer, media, and even alcohol even thought I don't drink as often as others my age Now to answer your questions, yes it was too hard for a person like me to swim all the way back to beaver island. I had tried twice but the southward current would pull me faster than i could swim. So when I was nearly out of energy I swam back and nearly downed the second time. Yes i did also try to make multiple large fires on the shore but not many people must have noticed, and if they did they may have thought it was a campfire or natural because nobody had ever showed up to investigate it. As for people back home i only had one person who i told I was going on the trip up north but I told them i would likely not have cell signal. But apparently they did notify the police but it did not qualify as a proper "missing persons case". Haha in America you cant guarantee that police count on each other from county to county.
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Master Cartographer
April 2015 - Mar 28, 2024 17:18:13 GMT
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Post by syzygy on Aug 7, 2020 10:01:43 GMT
..., yes it was too hard for a person like me to swim all the way back to beaver island. I had tried twice but the southward current would pull me faster than i could swim. So when I was nearly out of energy I swam back and nearly downed the second time. Yes i did also try to make multiple large fires on the shore but not many people must have noticed, and if they did they may have thought it was a campfire or natural because nobody had ever showed up to investigate it. As for people back home i only had one person who i told I was going on the trip up north but I told them i would likely not have cell signal. But apparently they did notify the police but it did not qualify as a proper "missing persons case". ... All this sounds credible indeed! Two weeks ago I've been to Lake Balaton with my family. At Balatonvilágos, where we stayed the water is shallow even a kilometer off shore and my little daughter (6) went too far with our friends, that I felt better to go after her. Did not swim more than 200 meters in the wavy water, but I had to stop as went out of blow... (okay - I am a smoker) *** Captivating story of yours anyhow and (as you have survived) I think you happy with having all this afterall, do not you? ... Do you happen to have a (detailed) topographic (and/or historical) map of High island?
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Full Member
January 2020 - Jan 5, 2024 10:40:59 GMT
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Post by leong on May 2, 2021 7:14:15 GMT
Not much is known of this small island. At one point it was home to the only king to rule American land, King James Strang.
If I went around claiming I was king just because some watery nymph lobbed a scimitar at me, they would call me strange... oh wait... Turns out the relics of civilisation found on High Island was from a different cult, "The House of David", which was Southcottian.. that the second coming or the apocalypse was due, based on interpretations of Revelations, and some ideas from a Southcott woman in England who was delirious due to an illness which made her belly looked pregnant (and thus she was a virgin and pregnant ? ... or something ..her death not affecting the USA mobs beliefs.. ) see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Island_(Michigan)for info on House of David, natives presence, and so on. Note you have found the House of David's "treasure" ... their potatoes !
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Master Cartographer
April 2015 - Mar 28, 2024 17:18:13 GMT
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Post by syzygy on May 2, 2021 7:35:48 GMT
Thanks for essential wiki-page also intetesting new details and aspects for the story!
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Master Cartographer
April 2015 - Mar 28, 2024 17:18:13 GMT
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Post by syzygy on Mar 5, 2024 16:04:36 GMT
Just have realised, numbear77's account is deleted...
Does anyone know what has happened?
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