Little Charity Island
Little Charity Island is a small island in Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron, Michigan. It covers about 5.4 acres (2.2 hectares) and is in Sims Township, Arenac County. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bought the island in 1999, and it is now managed by staff from the Seney National Wildlife Refuge as part of the Michigan Islands National Wildlife Refuge.
The island sits in the middle of the bay, inland from its larger neighbor, Big Charity Island, between Point Lookout to the northwest and Sand Point to the southeast. It has some trees and is a nesting site for waterbirds, including double-crested cormorants. Fishermen use it as a navigation landmark.
Long ago it was called Ile de Traverse on an 1839 map. In the 1800s and early 1900s, Bay Port Fish Company owned the island for riparian water rights. After the 1940s, Michigan law changed and the island, like others in the bay, was sold.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 17:38 (CET).