A Summary of the history of St. Joseph Island

St Joseph Island is located approximately at  46° 15' 00" N - 83° 53' 00" W
District of Algoma, Ontario, Canada.
It is about 20 miles long by about 12 miles wide (about 90,000 acres)
and lies in Lake Huron at the junction of where Lake Superior ,Lake Michigan 
and Lake Huron combine.

St. Joe as it is commonly called was not inhabitated by the white man until
the late 1700's when in 1796 a British Military outpost ( Fort St. Joseph ) 
was established. The Fort and it's personell played a large part in the war 
of 1812 until it was burned by the Americans in 1814 and the Military left.

The next settlers did not arrive until around 1835 when a Major Rains ,
Archibald Hamilton Scott , and Charles Thompson arrived and attempted to
colonize the Island. This did not occur.

The major influx of settlers began after the "Homestead Act" of 1877
which granted free land. From this beginning it has developed into it's
current day status.

For more details see the "timeline" from the main menu.