The Apostle Islands

The Archipelago

aerial photo

map of the islands

We stopped at the Visitor Center in Bayfield that the National Park Service has for this National Lakeshore, which is where I took these photos.

There's a daily ferry that runs between Bayfield and Madeline Island, the largest in these photos.  It runs from spring breakup until winter freeze-up, according to the schedule.  Round trip fare is $15 per person and $27 per car.  They also charge $7.50 for bicycles, which seems odd to me because they store more than twice as easily as people.

There are also a variety of cruises that go to places of interest such as sea caves, lighthouses (there are 7 of them), wrecks, and camping areas.  They range in price from $40 to $60.

Some History  

Unfortunately, some frustrated novel writer authored the Park Service's pamphlet that's supposed to explain what the islands are about; this person said they are 

"the product of geological processes operating over periods of time difficult for us to fathom.  Layers of sand, gravel, and stone are chapters of a story covering thousands, millions, even billions of years.  The islands' story continues to be written, as surely as sunrise follows sunset." 

Makes me think the person who couldn't do the fathoming was the writer, because that's all the explanation he/she gives about the islands' formation.  (And this sample shows what I meant about being a frustrated author.)

For hundreds of years Ojibwe people came here seasonally to hunt, fish, gather berries and wild rice, and make maple sugar.  In the 1800s they signed treaties with the US that gave up ownership but retained rights of usage of the islands.

From 1850 to 1970, the islands were logged thoroughly, and the only bits of old-growth forest left are near the preserved lighthouses.  White birch and sugar maple are replacing the white pine and hemlock that were taken.

After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, sandstone became a preferred building material, and several of the islands were quarried from then until 1900, when architectural styles changed.  

Tourism boomed beginning in the mid-1800s and lasting until the Depression clamped down on people's vacation money.  Since its designation as a National Lakeshore in 1970,  it's become an increasing draw for tourists.  And in 2004 Congress protected 33,000 acres as a wilderness, naming it for Gaylord Nelson, former Wisconsin senator and the father of Earth Day.

I don't know when the island got name Apostle Islands.  I asked the ranger, saying I'd figured they'd be named Matthew, Mark, Luke and John Islands, which they're not.  He said they actually aren't sure where the name came from but assume that somebody originally thought there were 12 islands, but there are actually 22 of them.

And because I still had a fair drive ahead and it was already lunchtime, I decided not to take a ferry trip over, so this is all I can tell you about the islands.  I couldn't even take any photos because the clouds were so low I could barely see them from the shore.  Oh well, next trip I guess.