A Milwaukee family, who owns majority of St. Martin Island, sells it off to the Nature Conservancy for $1.5 million, guaranteeing its preservation and protection.
St. Martin Island, the home to quite a lot of Native Americans and occupied by approximately 100 settlers from the Eastern states in the mid-1800s, is situated in the Garden Peninsula in Delta County in Michigan.
However, in 1889, after the fish population declined, the settlers moved out and the island was declared vacated.
It is the southernmost island in Michigan that is part of a line islands at the mouth of the Green Bay. It is also a part of Niagara Escarpment.
In 1980s, roughly 94 percent of the island or 1,244 acres was acquired by Fred Luber’s family and the remaining six percent is owned by Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians and another private landowner.
Fred Luber, former chairman and chief executive of Super Steel Products, told Peninsula Pulse, “When I bought the land, my initial idea was to develop it. But my family wanted to maintain its natural beauty.”
Three decades after, the family decided to sell the island off for $1.5 million, just about 60 percent of its fair market cost, for its protection and preservation under the management of The Nature Conservancy.
Luber added in his statement, “We really enjoyed the 30-some years we owned St. Martin Island. And we are delighted that The Nature Conservancy will protect and preserve it.”
After the formal acquisition of the island, it will be a property of the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service’s Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge. St. Martin Island may be in Michigan waters, but the conservancy's Michigan and Wisconsin programs tied up to acquire it.
As of the moment, the Nature Conservancy still needs to find money for the purchase of the island. It is in search of public and private funding.
