BEAVER ISLAND, MICH. -- Sitting some 30 miles from the ferry docks in Lake Charlevoix, Michigan’s remote Beaver Island has long been rich with an increasingly rare resource: Dark, unpolluted night skies.

Now, a group is hoping to spread the word about the island’s incredible stargazing -- by seeking to designate the entire island as an international dark-sky sanctuary.

“Everybody that I know that comes here interested in astronomy is just absolutely amazed at how dark it really is,” said William Markey, an astronomy enthusiast who has lived on the island for nearly 40 years. “We really are the darkest skies in Michigan.”

Markey’s love for Beaver Island’s night skies led him to become the volunteer administrator for a Facebook group called Beaver Island Dark Sky Project: An unofficial group gathering research and support to apply for the dark-sky sanctuary designation from the International Dark-Sky Association.

A dark-sky sanctuary differs from a dark-sky park in that it is an exceptional distinction reserved for the planet’s darkest, most remote, and often most ecologically sensitive places.

Currently there are only 10 such sanctuaries in the world, and only four in the United States. So far only one location in Michigan has been granted any designation from the IDA: Headlands International Dark Sky Park near Mackinaw City.

Tapping into the interest in dark skies, the Beaver Island Chamber of Commerce is currently working with Little Traverse Conservancy to create a publicly accessible dark-sky viewing area at the island’s 116-acre Little Sand Bay Nature Preserve. According to chamber director Paul Cole, that viewing area could be open as early as next year.

Applying for official dark-sky status from the IDA is a lengthy and complicated process -- the earliest the Beaver Island group could submit an application would be the fall of 2020. Markey the plan is for the group to evolve into a nonprofit -- and in the meantime, he said he and others are hoping to continue to gather support from like-minded lovers of the night sky.

“We’re looking to develop and we’re recruiting,” Markey said. “We’re looking for people with telescopes, people with cameras.”

“The future is unknown, but there’s immense interest,” he said.

A slideshow of night-sky photography around Beaver Island by photographer Frank Solle.