Isle Royale National Park
Isle Royale National Park is a U.S. National Park on Isle Royale and adjacent islands in Lake Superior, in the state of Michigan. Isle Royale National Park was: established on April 3, 1940; designated as a National Wilderness Area in 1976; and made an International Biosphere Reserve in 1980. It is a relatively small National Park at 894 square miles (2,320 km2), with only 209 square miles (540 km2) above water. At the U.S.-Canada border, it meet the borders of the future Canadian Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area.
History
Prehistoric
In prehistoric times, large quantities of copper were mined on Isle Royale and the nearby Keweenaw Peninsula by the indigenous peoples. The region is scarred by ancient mine pits and trenches up to 20 feet (6.1 m) deep. Carbon-14 testing of wood remains found in sockets of copper artifacts indicates that they are at least 5700 years old.
In Prehistoric Copper Mining in the Lake Superior Region, published in 1961, Drier and Du Temple estimated that over 1.5 billion pounds of copper had been mined from the region. However, David Johnson and Susan Martin contend that their estimate was based on exaggerated and inaccurate assumptions.
19th & 20th centuries
In the mid-1840s, a report by Douglass Houghton, Michigan's first state geologist, set off a copper boom in the state, and the first modern copper mines were opened on the island. Evidence of the earlier mining efforts was everywhere, in the form of many stone hammers, some copper artifacts, and places where copper had been partially worked out of the rock but left in place. The ancient pits and trenches led to the discovery of many of the copper deposits that were mined in the 19th century.
The island was once the site of a resort community. The fishing industry has declined considerably, but continues at Edisen Fishery. Because numerous small islands surround Isle Royale, ships were once guided through the area by lighthouses at Passage Island, Rock Harbor, Rock of Ages, and Isle Royale Lighthouse on Menagerie Island.
Within the waters of Isle Royale National Park are several shipwrecks. The area’s notoriously harsh weather, dramatic underwater topography, the island’s central location on historic shipping routes, and the cold, fresh water have resulted in largely intact, well preserved wrecks throughout the park. These were documented in the 1980s, with follow up occurring in 2009, by the National Park Service Submerged Resources Center.
The Puzzle
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