Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Human History
Paleo-Indians entered the region perhaps as soon as the glaciers left the horizon. The chain
of islands has seen occupations—permanent or otherwise—of Huron, Sioux, Fox, and later
Iroquois, all arriving to exploit the phenomenal wealth of game and fish. But it was in-
disputably the Ojibwa whose hegemony mostly shaped the human history of the Apostles.
Before the enraptured Jesuits christened the islets biblically, Ojibwa myths recounted the
creation of the islands—a nature-creator hurled enormous sticks or stones (accounts vary)
at a fleeing animal, splashing into the glacial lakes and creating the archipelago.
BLACK ROBES AND BEAVER
Oncethewealthofbeaverbecameapparent(andParisdandiesmadethemthefashionrage),
the race was on between the Quebec governor, who wanted to woo the Natives with iron
goods, and the Black Robes, who wished to save those Natives from fire and brimstone.
Call it a draw in the long run, but the early sway fell to buck-toothed tree-cutters.
The Apostles would eventually become the westernmost shipping point for beaver pelts
alongthefabled“Voyageur'sHighway”onthenorthernLakeSuperiorcoast.Anotherroute
crossed Lake Superior to the area west of Hurley, leading 4,000 miles to Montreal. The fur
trade reached its zenith before the Revolutionary War and didn't ebb until the 1840s.
FISHING
TheeconomiclinchpintoLakeSuperior'ssouthshorewascommercialfishing,catchingon
afterthebeaver'sdemise.Enormousstocksofwhitefishandherringwerenetted,processed,
and shipped from the islands; despite the dearth of overland transportation, the Apostles
wereamainstayintheU.S.fishingindustry.Semi-permanentfishcampsdottedtheislands,
net sheds lined the shores, and it became such an industry that a thriving cooperage (barrel-
making) industry also developed. An annual fishing season would net almost eight million
pounds of fish. The last fishing camps withered away on the islands in the 1950s, when in-
vasion of the Great Lakes by the parasitic sea lamprey choked off fish populations. As with
Lake Michigan, sportfishing has become popular because of lake stocking.
QUARRIES
Sandstone from the Apostles helped rebuild Chicago after the Great Fire. Buildings from
the Milwaukee County Courthouse to entire city blocks in Chicago and other Midwestern
cities owe their construction to the ruddy brownstone culled from quarries on a handful of
the Apostle Islands. Hermit Island has the best residual quarry; a visit to the Apostle Island
HQinBayfieldoffersanup-closepeekatthelustrousstone,dubbedsecond-bestintheUn-
ited States by architecture and construction firms.
