The History of Isle Royale

Isle Royale is an island in Lake Superior. If you look at a map of the lake and think it looks like a wolf looking left, Isle Royale would be the eye of the wolf.

The island's history spans thousands of years. During the last Ice Age,15,000 to 20,000 years ago, Isle Royale was covered with thick glacial ice. About 10,000 years ago, the ice receded from the Lake Superior basin and Isle Royale rose above the waters of the lake. Its rocks, which are layers of lava flows and conglomerates formed during the Mesoproterozoic era, were tilted up by the weight of the glaciers, then eroded into long fingers that were then surrounded by water. This gives the eastern side of the island the look of fiords.  

We may never know when the first human ventured across the waters to land on the shore of Isle

Royale, but it is certain that people had arrived by 2,5000 BCE or soon thereafter. Early visitors mined raw copper, searching for nuggets and veins of the bright metal, then beating it out of the bedrock with rounded, hand-held beach cobbles. Archaeologists have found large numbers of these hammerstones along Minong Ridge, which has many of these ancient mines. More than 1,000 pits attributed to the Indians have been located on the island, but none include habitation sites. 

The Ojibwa call Isle Royale as "Minong," meaning "the good place." This may be because of the abundance of berries, including thimbleberries and blueberries.They mined copper and fished in the surrounding waters.Isle Royale remains within the traditional homelands of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

European contact began with the French during the Seventeenth Century. Fur traders, including Brule in 1622, Nicolet in 1634, and the Jesuits Raymbault and Jogues in 1641 lead to increased interest in the island's resources, including copper and timber. However, the remoteness of the island and the challenging weather and sailing conditions limited the area's use.

In the 1840s, Michigan's first state geologist, Douglass Houghton, reported on the wealth of copper on the island. That began a copper boom that lasted into the late 1890s. Unfortunately for the island, a common way to locate copper deposits was to burn forests, exposing surface rock. After the mining boom ended in the late 1890s, incidence of fire decreased and Isle Royale was not devastated by fire again until the 1930s, when it suffered its most devastating fire.

Fires, along with strikes and storms, also drove out the lumber industry, which tried to make a go of it on the island between 1892 and 1935. 

The longest-lasting industry on Isle Royal was commercial fishing. While historical records are scanty,

it's likely that The Northwest Fur Company got fish for its stations at the head of the lake in Western Lake Superior from the north side of the island sometime in the late 1700s. By the 1880's, from twenty to sixty crews came from the mainland to fish every year. They arrived in June and left in November, selling their catches to steamers from Duluth that made regular trips to the island to pick up fish and deliver supplies. During the early period, most fishermen were Cornish, English, or French. By the turn of the century, Norwegians, Swedes began to arrive, attracted by how similar the environment was to their homeland. Few fishermen or their families stayed on the island year-round. The isolation of the island once the lake froze, and the bitter weather permitted on the hardiest to stay.

Along with mining, lumber, and fishing, tourism tried to make a commercial success of itself on Isle Royale. Beginning in 1855, it established itself as a health destination, where cool weather and clean air could cure the sick. In the 1860's and 1870's, excursion boats carried travelers to the island, to picnic at the site of the Siskowit Mine or near the Rock Harbor lighthouse. Resorts were established on both sides of the island, and people from Minnesota, Michigan and Illinois began buying property for summer homes.


Private ownership of the island was not to last, however. In the 1920s, conservation efforts gained momentum, with advocates pushing for the island's preservation as a wilderness area. While some of the landowners were strong in support of the movement to create a park, others were not. In 1931, Congress authorized the establishment of Isle Royale National Park and the National Park Service began

acquiring all the lands and buildings belonging to the fishermen and summer residents. Some of those owners were given life leases.


The park was officially established on April 3, 1940, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

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Jennifer Bohnhoff is a former English and History teacher who now writes contemporary and historical fiction for middle grade through adult readers. Perspective, her novel set on Isle Royal in the 1930s, will be published in October, 2025. You can preorder the ebook or paperback now.