[Alex Murphy]

Richardson believes one of his other discoveries, the largest of the Skillagalee wreck sites with the greatest amount of artifacts present, is the wreck of the 150-foot brig Julia Dean. The captain blamed the ship's 1855 sinking on Beaver Island pirates. The three other wrecks remain unidentified.

The community of avowed “Mormons” led by James J. Strang on the Beaver Island in Lake Michagan broke up soon after Strang’s death at the hands of disenchanted followers in 1856. The ambush and killing of Strang followed a punishment of 79 lashes meted out against a follower who’d been caught in bed with another follower’s wife. From published accounts of the island’s history, we know that Strang, who reportedly struggled with Brigham Young for control of the LDS Church following the death of Joseph Smith, moved with a group of followers from Nauvoo, Ill., to Voree, Wis., and finally Beaver Island in the late 1840s. There, Strang declared himself “King of the Kingdom of God on Earth” and presided over a community of up to 230 devotees, imposing strict rules of behavior that included an edict that all women wear bloomers instead of dresses and that all men take up polygamy.
-- from the thread James Strang, "King of the Kingdom of God on Earth"

The New York Times reported on people in the area around Saugutuck, Mich., "thrown into the most intense excitement by the operations of a gang of marauders, who are reported to be Mormons from Beaver Island"....Beaver Island is located toward the north end of Lake Michigan between the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan, and it has its own bizarre history. In the 1850s, James Jesse Strang crowned himself the king of the island and declared it a separate country from the United States. Strang was eventually assassinated.
-- from the thread Arrrr! Real Pirates Once Sailed On Lake Michigan [and avast! They be Mormons!]

[cripplecreek]

Beaver Island is where I’m going when the zombie apocalypse hits.

[Red Badger]

Strang was eventually assassinated.

I guess he wasn't faithful enough,.................

[cripplecreek]

Beaver Island Pirates ping.



Michigan legislative action thread

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

” imposing strict rules of behavior that included an edict that all women wear bloomers instead of dresses “

So he wasn’t all bad! Eh? 8^)

[JSDude1]

Hmmm didn’t know two things: #1 that coral reefs were possible in lake Michigan, and #2 that there were pirates in Lake Michigan.

[Zhang Fei]

Today’s PSA: Talk Like a Pirate Day is September 19.

[Texan5]

Very informative and interesting-I’d have thought “Mormon pirates” was an oxymoron...

[Mathews]

Heh heh... Saugutuck, Mich... more like Sausagetuck. It’s the Providence of the North.

[cripplecreek]

On July 4, 1850, a drunken mob of fishermen vowed to kill the "Mormons" or drive them out, only to be awed into submission when Strang fired a cannon (which he had secretly acquired) at them.

HOLY CRAP They got a cannon!

[llevrok]

with island names like Fox and Beaver, some cartographer was a little pre-verted.

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

[victims of Mormon pirates off Beaver Island]

Well, there's a headline for the ages.

[lee martell]

Beaver Island, for the real 3 hour tour!

[Gamecock]

Say what you will, Mormons make good neighbors!</sarc>

[Zuben Elgenubi]

Weren’t many Mormons slaughtered on Beaver Island and then they moved west to Independence, MO?

[TexasFreeper2009]

so... mormon butt pirates were trying to keep people off of beaver island?

ROFL

[AnAmericanMother]

Strang was a weird character. He was tossed from the Mormons for being too extreme.

Read all about it here: American Heritage Magazine: "For his was the kingdom, the power and the glory . . . briefly."

[ebb tide]

Ping

[Elsie]

Stuff right up yer alley here!

[GeronL]

Mormon Pirates

lol

[Rides_A_Red_Horse]

The sea, it is said, never gives up her dead when the Witch of November comes early.