The Station was founded in 1909, on its present site in the northern tip of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, near the confluence of the upper three Great Lakes, Michigan, Huron, and Superior. Established by the University of Michigan, for conducting instruction and research in botany and zoology in a field situation, it has followed this purpose throughout its fifty-four years of continuous operation. Originally a unit of the Summer Session, it now is an administrative department of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. Its chief administrator is a director, who is aided by an executive committee composed of the dean of the School of Natural Resources and the chairmen of the Departments of Botany and Zoology.