Conservancy to Purchase St. Helena Island

After nearly 10 years of negotiations, the Little Traverse Conservancy is purchasing St. Helena Island. The 266-acre jewel in the Straits of Mackinac is being purchased from the Brown and Wallich families who have taken care of the island for the past 80 years. Once final fundraising efforts are completed, the island will be dedicated as a public nature preserve.

Conservancy executive director Tom Bailey thanked the Brown and Wallich families for their work in protecting the island for decades. "Although the Conservancy’s purchase is intended to protect the island for the future," he said, "the people who really saved St. Helena Island are the Brown and Wallich families who provided good care and stewardship for all these years. We have them to thank for this beautiful natural area."

St. Helena Island is located in the Straits of Mackinac six and a half miles west of the Mackinac Bridge. A two-acre light station on the island’s east end, in use since 1873, is owned and has been restored by the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association. The island’s environmental features include a Great Blue Heron rookery and diverse plant life with three threatened species. Though largely in a natural condition today, the island was the site of a small village, thriving by the 1850s. Island residents fished, worked in the shipping trades and at provisioning passing vessels. However, by the early 20th century, the village had disappeared.

The Brown family noted their long association with St. Helena. "Historically speaking, it is a real northern Michigan icon," a family spokesman said. "The mid- to late 19th century island village in the bay facing Gros Cap, about a mile north of the island, 

was an early American settler’s development. The village was abandoned in the 1900 to 1920 era, but remnants remain. Plans were made to develop the island, but not pursued. The island was logged a few times, usually following great storms off Lake Michigan, but none since the mid-1940s."

According to Mary A. (Wallich) Hammond who has represented the Wallich family for the past 30 years, her family is very excited to see St. Helena pass on to the Little Traverse Conservancy. Her father, Carl J. Wallich, inherited the island from his father, Carl J. Wallich Sr., founder of the Wallich Lumber  Company of Detroit. Charles J. Wallich, when purchasing the island, was a farsighted man for his day. He was a conservationist, an environmentalist, and a nature lover who would be proud to see what his grandchildren are doing with his property. "With the island being kept in the public domain, it will be a place for all nature lovers to come and enjoy the beauty of the Straits of Mackinac, just as our family has been able to do over the years," Mrs. Hammond said.

Numerous efforts have been made over the years to acquire St. Helena Island for the public. In the 1990s, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, acting on a nomination by the Little Traverse Conservancy, made an effort to acquire the island through the Natural Resources Trust Fund. The parties were unable to reach an agreement due to complications with appraisals and negotiations. More recently, efforts have been undertaken by the U.S. Forest Service to acquire the property, thanks to the hard work of Congressman Dale Kildee and Senator Carl Levin.

The Conservancy, working for years to secure protective ownership of the island, was unable to make a serious purchase offer until last year when an anonymous donor made a generous pledge toward the purchase. Though the plan for Forest Service acquisition was proceeding, no funds had actually been appropriated for a purchase. The Conservancy, having seen the prior state acquisition effort dissolve, and having private charitable pledges in hand, decided to move ahead with blessings from the federal agencies.

"It has been wonderful to work with the Brown and Wallich families on this project," Bailey noted. "They are making the island available to us at a favorable price, and have been very helpful in bringing about the purchase."

The Conservancy notes that two thirds of the $1.5 million required for the purchase has been raised. The organization is actively seeking grants and donations to complete the fund raising.

The Conservancy plans to manage the island as a nature preserve, and will be working cooperatively with the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association, which owns the light station on the east end of the island.