"When the sun set on North Manitou Island on September 26, 1979, it marked the end of community life on the island. My husband Ken and I watched 'The Glen Shore' depart the island dock, loaded with farm equipment and one passenger, the last employee of the Manitou Island Association. For the first time in at least 125 years the island would become unoccupied for year-round residents.

"Having spent eleven years as a year-round resident and thirty-three years as a summer resident, I was compelled to write about living on the Island and the lives of early settlers from the 1840's to 1999....