Isle Royale National Park

Park Information

• Date Established: April 3, 1940
• Location: Lake Superior, Michigan
• Area: 571,790 total acres; 132,018 acres of land

Overview

Isle Royale National Park is a protected wilderness area consisting of a group of islands and the surrounding waters in the northwestern corner of Lake Superior. The park is located within the borders of Michigan, although geographically, it is actually closer to Canada. Isle Royale is the park’s largest island at 45 miles (72.4 kilometers) long and 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) wide. The park’s boundaries also encompass more than 450 smaller islands and submerged land that stretches out into Lake Superior.

Due to its remote location, the park can only be reached by boat or seaplane. The main island is about 60 miles (96.6 kilometers) northwest from Copper Harbor, the northernmost point on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It is about 32 miles (51.5 kilometers) southeast of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. Outside of Alaska, Isle Royale is the least visited national park in the United States. Its location also provides scientists with an opportunity to study the island’s wildlife in a relatively untouched natural environment.

History

Today, Isle Royale is known for its pristine wilderness, but to Native Americans and early European explorers, it was valued for its natural resources. The Ojibwa, a Native American people sometimes called the Chippewa in the United States, referred to the main island as Minong, meaning “a good place to get copper.” Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of copper mining pits dating back about four thousand years. European fur traders found the island a lucrative source of beaver pelts in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Attempts to mine copper on the island in the nineteenth century proved only moderately successful, leading to the establishment of a fishing and tourism industry on Isle Royale.

Prior to 1763, the island was part of French Canada. With the French defeat in the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763), Isle Royale and the rest of French Canada was handed over to Great Britain. It became territory of the United States in 1783 as part of the terms ending the American Revolution (1775–1783). When Michigan became a state in 1837, its borders were extended to include Isle Royale. The US government officially purchased the island from the Ojibwa tribe in 1843.

In the 1920s, conservationists began a push to make the island a national park. Under the direction of President Herbert Hoover, Congress began to designate sections of the northern wildness as preserve areas in 1931. On April 3, 1940, Congress officially declared Isle Royale and the 850 square miles (2,201 square kilometers) around it as Isle Royale National Park. The park became a federally protected wilderness in 1976, and was named a biosphere reserve by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1980.

Geology and Ecology

The land that would become Isle Royale was born from volcanic eruptions about 1.2 billion years ago. Erosion, geological processes, and periods of advancing and receding glaciers slowly gouged out a grooved landscape of ridges and valleys. The last ice age buried the area under about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) of ice about eleven thousand years ago. When the glaciers melted, they created the Great Lakes and left behind Isle Royale and hundreds of smaller islands in Lake Superior.

The island’s main ridge, Greenstone Ridge, is believed to be a remnant of the largest lava flow in Earth’s history. The flow once covered an area stretching from Kansas into Canada. Today, the ridge runs for about 40 miles (64 kilometers) along Isle Royale. Its name comes from the distinctive greenish-blue color of its rock. An underwater reef to the west of Isle Royale has been blamed for causing numerous shipping mishaps since the nineteenth century. In 1877, the reef claimed a large passenger ship; in 1898, a merchant freighter sank at the same site. The remains of both wrecks can still be seen off the coast today.

Isle Royale National Park has about 165 miles (266 kilometers) of hiking trails and 36 campgrounds. The park has no roads and wheeled vehicles are not allowed. The only transportation in the park is by foot, kayak, or boat. Park visitors are instructed to carry with them only the items they will need during their stay and take all trash with them when they leave. According to the National Park Service, 25,454 people visited the park islands in 2022. That year, Isle Royale National Park was the fifth least-visited national park. Isle Royale is the only national park in the United States that is not open year-round. It is typically closed from November to about mid-April, depending on weather conditions.

Most of the park’s forests are less than two hundred years old. The island’s original trees were burned down by miners in the mid-nineteenth century. Large forests of spruce, fir, and birch have since grown back to cover much of the park. Some cedar forests can be found in the marshlands of the island’s interior. The park is also home to several wildflower species, most notably several species of colorful orchids.

While bird life on Isle Royale is almost identical to that found on the mainland, the island’s isolated location has limited its mammal species to nineteen. Porcupines, skunks, raccoons, and bears—mammals common on the mainland—are not found anywhere in the park. Many species simply never made the journey over Lake Superior from the mainland. The species that did—red squirrels, snowshoe hares, mice, beavers, and red foxes—are found throughout the park. The park’s two largest species—moose and wolves—did not exist on the islands prior to the early twentieth century.

Scientists believe moose either swam to the island or were introduced by hunters in the early twentieth century. The first wolves crossed a frozen stretch of Lake Superior in the late 1940s during a particularly cold winter. Since that time, the two populations have fluctuated, rising and falling depending on the ratio of wolves to moose. Scientists have been studying this natural interaction between predator and prey on Isle Royale since 1958, making it the longest study of its kind in history. In 2024, roughly thirty wolves remained on the island.

Bibliography

“Camp in the Remote Backwoods of This Beautiful Island Park.” National Geographic, www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/national-parks/isle-royale-national-park/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

DuFresne, Jim. Isle Royale National Park: Foot Trails & Water Routes. Mountaineers Books, 2004.

“Isle Royale.” Michigan State University, geo.msu.edu/extra/geogmich/isleroyale.html. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

“Isle Royale National Park.” National Park Foundation, www.nationalparks.org/explore-parks/isle-royale-national-park. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

“Isle Royale National Park: The History & Beauty of a Treasured Wilderness.” National Park Reservations, https://www.nationalparkreservations.com/article/isleroyale-history-beauty/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

“NPS Geodiversity Atlas—Isle Royale National Park, Michigan.” National Park Service, 8 July 2024, www.nps.gov/articles/nps-geodiversity-atlas-isle-royale-national-park-michigan.htm. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

O’Donnell, Kevin. “Your Invitation to a Superior Wilderness.” National Park Service, www.nps.gov/isro/index.htm. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.