Mormon and Irish Landscapes on Beaver Island, Lake Michigan – niche construction and socio-ecological inheritance in the nineteenth century

Abstract

ABSTRACTBeaver Island, Michigan was a unique settlement location for Irish America in the late nineteenth century. Families of Irish descent migrated to northern Lake Michigan and reproduced many aspects of the rural, fishing and farming lifeways of Ireland. They had to negotiate the cultural landscape and material conditions that had previously been established on the island, notably by a Mormon sect that occupied the island between 1848 and 1856. The inheritance of landscapes by one community from another can be understood through the concept of niche construction theory. This can be used as a lens to understand how the Mormons shaped their cultural landscape and what this meant for the socio-ecological legacy taken over by their Irish replacements. We also notice the Irish influence on the Beaver Island Lumber Company who came after them. Utilising archaeological and historical data, we undertake a macro-analysis to investigate the shaping of structures and landscapes as interactive influences of one cultural group on another across time. Each new group selectively utilised aspects of the extant ecology and built environment according to their own needs and worldviews, and thus transformed the island's landscapes again for subsequent inhabitants.