Manitou County, Michigan

Manitou County was an insular county in the U.S. state of Michigan consisting of Beaver Island and its surrounding islands, together with the North and South Manitou Islands and Fox Islands in Lake Michigan. The county existed from 1855 to 1895. The county seat was at St. James on Beaver Island.

Before the 1836 Treaty of Washington extinguished Native American claim to most of the land in the northwest part of Northern Michigan, the islands were nominally a part of Michilimackinac County (later renamed Mackinac County). In 1840, that portion of Mackinac County lying in the lower peninsula was divided into counties that remained attached for administrative purposes to Mackinac. The Manitou Islands were a part of Leelanau County, while the Beaver Island group was a part of Tonedagana County (quickly renamed Emmet County). In 1853 county government was organized in Emmet County and the administrative attachment of Leelanau County was changed to Grand Traverse County, Michigan.

In 1847, James J. Strang, a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement, established a colony on Beaver Island. Strang crowned himself king of his church in 1850, and he was also elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in the 1853 and again in 1855. Due in large part to fear of and animosity towards Strang's religious sect, and concerns over the political strength his following gave him, petitions were presented to the legislature to detach Beaver and the Fox Islands from Emmet and form them into a separate county. This was granted in 1855. The Manitou Islands were included in the new county and gave it their name, despite being nearly unpopulated at the time.

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