Plum Island is an island at the western shore of Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...

 in the southern part of the town of Washington

Washington, Door County, Wisconsin

Washington is a town in northern Door County, Wisconsin, United States, with a population of 660 at the 2000 census. The unincorporated communities of Detroit Harbor and Washington are located in the town....

 in Door County

Door County, Wisconsin

Door County is a county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of 2000, the population was 27,961. Its county seat is Sturgeon Bay. Door County is a popular vacation and tourist destination, especially for residents of Wisconsin and Illinois....

, Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

, USA. The uninhabited island has a land area of 1.179 km² or 117.87 ha

Hectare

The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...

 (0.455 sq mi, or 291.25 acres). The island is a bird sanctuary under control of the U.S. Coast Guard

United States Coast Guard

The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...

 and will eventually become part of the Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge

Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge

Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge consists of Hog Island , Plum Island , and Pilot Island . The islands are located in Lake Michigan, near Washington Island, off the tip of Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula. An Executive Order in 1913 declared Hog Island a protected breeding ground for native birds....

. The island also holds the unmanned Plum Island Range Lights

Plum Island Range Lights

The Plum Island Range Lights are a pair of range lights located on Plum Island in Door County, Wisconsin. They were part of the Plum Island United States Life-Saving Station. Plum Island was transferred to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in 2007 and became part of the Green Bay...

. There are nearly 250 shipwreck

Shipwreck

A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....

s off the island's shores.