The island consists of a ridge of tilted layers of limestone, buried under a blanket of glacial debris.

South Manitou Island was originally settled in the mid-1830s by William Burton to provide cord wood to fuel the Great Lakes steamships.

His dock was built in the middle of the crescent-shaped bay on the eastern side of the island, which offered the only natural deep-water harbor between Chicago and Buffalo.

In 1847, the village included Burton's Wharf, a house, blacksmith shop, grocery store, barn, and a wooden tamarack railroad track extending from the dock inland to haul wood for the steamers.

When logging operations ended and the dock fell into disrepair, the original island village dwindled in size and importance.

Burdick's moved their general store from its original location near the old dock to a site near the Lifesaving station in 1923 on the southeastern shore, and that marked the shift of the island community to the current village site located at the present dock where the passenger ferry arrives.

With the completion of the Erie Canal in 1826, the development of commercial navigation on the Great Lakes increased rapidly.

The Manitou Passage was the most important route for schooners and steamers traveling the 300 mile length of Lake Michigan.

In 1858, the U.S. Lighthouse Establishment recognized the need for greater safety and replaced this house with a two-story brick residence with a 35-foot tower on top.

She ran over the wreck of the bulk freighter Walter L Frost, stranded November 4, 1903, with a cargo of corn and general merchandise.

He kept the engines going full for 49 hours so the wind would not blow the vessel back out to sea, until he was able to send two seamen ashore to fasten to a stout tree.

When the storm abated 24 hours later, he untied from the tree, put his engines in reverse and backed away from shore to proceed safely on his journey.