Beaver Island Webcam – Watch Ferries in St. James Harbor

The Beaver Island Webcam looks east from Powers’ Do It Best Hardware on Main Street in St. James, the main village on Beaver Island in northern Lake Michigan. Its fixed view runs down the street to the Beaver Island Boat Company ferry pier, then out across St. James Harbor, also known as Paradise Bay, to the wooded far shore. Cars pull in along the curb in the foreground, houses and trees fill the right side of the frame, and a wide paved lot opens up beside the dock. When one of the ferries is in, it lies along the pier near the middle of the picture, so a glance shows whether the boat has arrived. On clear mornings the camera faces almost straight into the low sun, and in midwinter the same view can show the harbor frozen white from shore to shore.

About Beaver Island and St. James

Beaver Island is the largest island in Lake Michigan, covering 145 square kilometers (55.8 square miles) about 51 kilometers (32 miles) offshore from Charlevoix. The 2020 census counted 616 year-round residents on the whole island, 259 of them in St. James Township at its northern end. St. James is where the ferry lands and where most of the island’s shops line Main Street. The ferry terminal is about 160 meters (525 feet) from the hardware store, and the Beaver Island Harbor Light, built in 1870 and still an active aid to navigation, stands on Whiskey Point about a kilometer (0.6 miles) to the southeast. The point owes its name to an early trading post that sold liquor there.

The village name goes back to James Strang, who brought a breakaway faction of Mormon settlers to the island in 1848 and named the colony St. James after himself. He was crowned king on July 8, 1850, founded the Northern Islander, the first newspaper in Northern Michigan, and made St. James the seat of a new Manitou County. In June 1856 disaffected followers shot him, and he died on July 9. Irish fishermen from County Donegal, who had been dispossessed during his rule, then returned and drove the Strangites out. That Irish ancestry is why the island calls itself America’s Emerald Isle.

Weather and Climate on Beaver Island

Lake Michigan keeps summers mild. NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 normals for Beaver Island put the average July high at 24 C (76 F), with nights around 15 C (58 F), and August is almost the same. Spring comes slowly because the lake is still cold: the average April high is only 10 C (49 F), and the average April low sits right at freezing. September holds at 20 C (68 F), and by October highs have slipped to 13 C (55 F).

Winter is long and snowy. January averages a high of minus 3 C (27 F) and a low of minus 9 C (15 F), and about 190 centimeters (75 inches) of snow falls in a typical year, close to 59 centimeters (23 inches) of it in January alone. The record low is minus 32 C (minus 25 F). Ferry service is suspended in the winter months, so the dock on camera goes quiet, snow banks up along Main Street, and in the coldest spells ice locks the harbor in.

Things to Do Near St. James Harbor

Most of St. James is walkable from the camera. The Mormon Print Shop Museum stands about 40 meters (130 feet) from the hardware store, and Jewell Gillespie Park, with its small harbor beach, is about 170 meters (560 feet) to the south, just out of frame on the right. The Beaver Island Community Center, about 135 meters (440 feet) away, runs dark-sky evenings for constellations, meteor showers and the Northern Lights. On the north shore of the harbor, near the Beaver Island Marina, are McDonough’s Market, Dalwhinnie Bakery and Whiskey Point Brewing Co., and the Beaver Island Marine Museum is just under a kilometer (0.6 miles) east of the camera.

Farther out, the Beaver Head Lighthouse on the island’s south end was first built in 1851, decommissioned in 1962 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Parts of the island and the surrounding archipelago are protected in the Beaver Islands State Wildlife Research Area, and Central Michigan University runs its CMU Biological Station here and owns a former Coast Guard boathouse on Whiskey Point. The Beaver Island Music Festival, founded in 2003, brings artists from around the world to perform outdoors in the island’s woods.

Similar Webcams You Might Like

The ferry to the island leaves from Charlevoix, and the other two views stay on the northern Great Lakes.

• Charlevoix Webcam
• Mackinac Bridge Webcam
• Bayfield Webcam

Frequently Asked Questions

What can you see on the Beaver Island Webcam?

A fixed view east from Main Street in St. James: the street and parked cars in the foreground, houses and trees on the right, the Beaver Island Boat Company ferry pier in the middle and St. James Harbor beyond it, with the wooded far shore on the horizon.

Where is Beaver Island located?

Beaver Island is in northern Lake Michigan, in Charlevoix County, Michigan, about 51 kilometers (32 miles) offshore from Charlevoix. The camera is in St. James, the village at the island’s northern end, where the ferry docks and most of the island’s businesses are.

Is this the Powers Hardware webcam on Beaver Island?

Yes. The camera belongs to Powers’ Do It Best Hardware at 26259 Main Street in downtown St. James and streams through Angelcam’s click2stream service. It is a separate camera from the Beaver Island Community Center’s Paradise Bay webcam.

Can you see the Beaver Island ferry on the webcam?

Yes, when a boat is in port. The Beaver Island Boat Company pier sits in the middle of the frame, and the company’s two ferries, the Emerald Isle and the Beaver Islander, dock there after the crossing from Charlevoix, which takes about two hours. Ferry service is suspended in the winter months.

What is the weather like on Beaver Island?

Summers are mild, with average July highs of 24 C (76 F). Winters are cold and snowy, with an average January high of minus 3 C (27 F) and about 190 centimeters (75 inches) of snow a year. The Beaver Island Webcam is a quick way to check for fog, snow or harbor ice before a crossing or a flight.

Is this webcam at Beaver Island State Park?

No. Beaver Island State Park is a different place, at the south end of Grand Island in the upper Niagara River in New York. This camera is on Beaver Island in Lake Michigan.

How do you get to Beaver Island in winter?

By air. Island Airways flies to Welke Airport, about 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) south of St. James, and Fresh Air Aviation flies to Beaver Island Airport on the west side of the island, a little over 6.4 kilometers (4 miles) from the village. Flights from Charlevoix take about 15 minutes and run several times a day all year.

Source: Powers’ Hardware