Bois Blanc Island (Michigan)
| Native name: Wigobiminniss | |
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Bois Blanc Island is the largest island on the right.
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 Bois Blanc Island
Bois Blanc Island (Michigan)
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| Geography | |
| Location | Lake Huron near the Straits of Mackinac |
| Coordinates | 45°46′30″N 84°28′44″W / 45.77500°N 84.47889°WCoordinates: 45°46′30″N 84°28′44″W / 45.77500°N 84.47889°W |
| Area | 35.3 sq mi (91 km2) |
| Highest elevation | 692 ft (210.9 m) |
| Administration | |
| State | Michigan |
| County | Mackinac County |
| Township | Bois Blanc Township |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 71 (2000) |
Bois Blanc Island is an island in Lake Huron coterminous with Bois Blanc Township, Mackinac County, Michigan. The island covers about 34 sq mi (88 km2) and is about 12 miles (19 km) long, 6 miles (9.6 km) wide and has 6 lakes. It lies southeast of Mackinac Island and almost due north of the city of Cheboygan.
"Bois Blanc" is French for "white wood". The name is commonly thought to be a reference to either: (a) the paper birch, or more likely (b) the basswood, called "bois blanc" in other contexts. The basswood's white underbark was extensively used by Native Americans and French-speaking fur traders for cordage, including the sewing up of canoes and the manufacture of webbing for snowshoes. The French Canadian colloquial term for "inner bark" was bois blanc. The Indians themselves had a name for Bois Blanc Island and the meaning is the same as the Canadian name. It was called Wigobiminiss. Wigobi or wicopy signifies "tying bark" or "inner bark". Miniss means "island".
"Boblo" is an English corruption of the French pronunciation of the name. Several islands with the same name dot the Great Lakes, and nearly all are known as "Boblo" or "Bob-lo" by the local populations.
Bois Blanc was ceded by the local Anishinaabe (Chippewa) as "an extra and voluntary gift" to the U.S. federal government with the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. The cession for the area, Article 3, item 13 of the treaty states: "The post of Michilimackinac, and all the land on the island on which that post stands, and the main land adjacent, of which the Indian title has been extinguished by gifts or grants to the French or English governments; and a piece of land on the main to the north of the island, to measure six miles, on lake Huron, or the strait between lakes Huron and Michigan, and to extend three miles back from the water of the lake or strait; and also, the Island De Bois Blane, being an extra and voluntary gift of the Chippewa nation." The treaty ceded most of Ohio and a slice of Indiana to the government, as well as sixteen strategic sites well within Indian territory, on waterways in the future states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.
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