New Book Brings To Life The Story Of Beaver Island’s ‘King Of Confidence’

By Justin Kaufmann
Lake Michigan
If you have ever lived along or visited the coastline of Lake Michigan, chances are you’ve been told the story of the Kind of Beaver Island. It’s a great piece of Midwest History about a man who led a colony on a largest island in Lake Michigan. VV Nincic / Flickr
Lake Michigan
If you have ever lived along or visited the coastline of Lake Michigan, chances are you’ve been told the story of the Kind of Beaver Island. It’s a great piece of Midwest History about a man who led a colony on a largest island in Lake Michigan. VV Nincic / Flickr

New Book Brings To Life The Story Of Beaver Island’s ‘King Of Confidence’

By Justin Kaufmann

If you’ve ever visited the coastline of Lake Michigan, chances are you’ve been told the story of the King of Beaver Island.

In his new book, author Miles Harvey brings the story of James Jesse Strang to life. He talks about the man from Western New York schemed and failed his way through life, only to end up leading a faction of the Mormon Church to Beaver Island in the Antebellum era of the 19th Century.

GUEST: Miles Harvey, author King of Confidence: A Tale of Utopian Dreamers, Frontier Schemers, True Believers, False Prophets and the Murder of an American Monarch