Apostle Islands

Along windswept beaches and cliffs, visitors experience where water meets land and sky, culture meets culture, and past meets present. The 21 islands and 12 miles of mainland host a unique blend of cultural and natural resources.  Lighthouses shine over Lake Superior and the new wilderness areas. Visitors can hike, paddle, sail, or cruise to experience these Jewels of Lake Superior. Though today a walk along most trails on the Apostle Islands will give the hiker a feeling of wilderness, it's well to remember that not so long ago, people called these islands home. Men and women lived and worked on these islands, babies were born, children played and went to school. Over the years, people have attempted to wrest a living from the island environment by farming, logging, quarrying building stone, and by fishing in the waters of Lake Superior. Island inhabitants have included early Native Americans, pioneer farmers, commercial fishermen, lighthouse keepers and their families. If you know what to look for, you can still see evidence of their homes and workplaces in the island landscape. Sometimes the traces of past lives are easy to spot. The light stations, with their towers and houses and outbuildings, are well known, and visited by many. Other sites, less often visited, offer equally obvious evidence of human presence. Follow the loop trail on Basswood Island from the group campsite southward: as you approach the island's southern tip, you will suddenly find yourself at an overlook high above the remains of the Bass Island Brownstone Quarry. Stone walls like fortress ramparts loom above the quarry pit; here and there chunks of rusted iron equipment lie on the forest floor.