Washington Island is an uninhabited island in Lake Superior

Lake Superior

Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...

. It is within the boundary of Keweenaw County

Keweenaw County, Michigan

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 2,301 people, 998 households, and 604 families residing in the county. The population density was 4 people per square mile . There were 2,327 housing units at an average density of 4 per square mile...

 and Isle Royale National Park

Isle Royale National Park

Isle Royale National Park is a U.S. National Park in the state of Michigan. Isle Royale, the largest island in Lake Superior, is over 45 miles in length and 9 miles wide at its widest point. The park is made of Isle Royale itself and approximately 400 smaller islands, along with any submerged...

, a national park

National park

A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...

 located within the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

. It is the westernmost point marked on most maps of the elongated archipelago

Archipelago

An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...

 that makes up this park. However, a small islet called Bottle Island and an even smaller shoal that breaks the lake surface, Rock of Ages

Rock of Ages Light

The Rock of Ages Light is a U.S. Coast Guard lighthouse on a small rock outcropping approximately miles west of Washington Island and west of Isle Royale, in Keweenaw County, Michigan...

, are located further westward.

Washington Island is approximately 2 mi (3.2 km) long and 0.5 mi (0.80467 km) wide. Like the rest of the Isle Royale

Isle Royale

Isle Royale is an island of the Great Lakes, located in the northwest of Lake Superior, and part of the state of Michigan. The island and the 450 surrounding smaller islands and waters make up Isle Royale National Park....

 archipelago, the island is an ancient ridge of basalt

Basalt

Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...

 oriented from the southwest to the northeast.

Washington Island is separated by Grace Harbor from Isle Royale. It has relatively low visitation, with the majority of day trippers being sea kayakers from nearby Windigo Ranger Station

Windigo Ranger Station

Windigo Ranger Station, or simply Windigo, is a docking and refueling port on Isle Royale, the largest island in Lake Superior, and is a ranger station for Isle Royale National Park. Along with Rock Harbor, it is one of only two ports for visitors to enter the national park...

. The waters of Lake Superior around Washington Island are notoriously dangerous, however, and inexperienced kayakers are not encouraged to navigate them.

Many Great Lakes boats and lake freighter

Lake freighter

Lake freighters, or Lakers, are bulk carrier vessels that ply the Great Lakes. The best known was the , the most recent and largest major vessel to be wrecked on the Lakes. These vessels are traditionally called boats, although classified as ships. In the mid-20th century, 300 lakers worked the...

s have succumbed to the stormy waters that surround Washington Island. The nearby 1908 lighthouse and light tower, Rock of Ages Light

Rock of Ages Light

The Rock of Ages Light is a U.S. Coast Guard lighthouse on a small rock outcropping approximately miles west of Washington Island and west of Isle Royale, in Keweenaw County, Michigan...

, tries to warn boats away from these dangerous waters. The federal government has also constructed a radio beacon tower

Electric beacon

Electric beacons are a kind of beacon used with direction finding equipment to find ones relative bearing to a known location .The term electric beacon includes radio, infrared and sonar beacons.- Radio beacons :...

on Washington Island's eastern tip, facing Isle Royale.

Passenger ferry vessels that circumnavigate the Isle Royale archipelago use Grace Harbor as a navigable sound, and pass close by Washington Island.