Shipwrecks of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

By "Ranger Steve"

There are about 80 known shipwrecks between Ashland and Duluth with dozens around the Apostle Islands. Those numbers don’t include the earliest people in the area that traveled, explored and sustained themselves on the water and unconfirmed losses. Surely, at times the gales of November claimed many, who’s tales remain untold under the cold and unforgiving waters of Lake Superior.

What brought the outside world here? In a word - resources. Resources have been bringing people here for about 5 thousand years.

Travel by water has been the primary means in the area for hundreds of years. The world came to the Apostle Islands slowly and it came by water. The Ojibwe migration westward sought to find the place where “food grew on the water”. For hundreds of years they inhabited the area and used waterways to travel from island to islands, in rhythm with the seasons, to harvest the food and resources bestowed by nature.

Madeline island became the hub of Ojibwe culture and later an area of missionary activity, voyageur fur trade and commercial fishing. A great number of ships sailed the Great Lakes transporting these goods in the 1700’s. Once the Sault locks were constructed in 1855 and cargoes of iron ore and copper replaced furs and trade grew to include coal, grain, lumber, and brownstone, so grew the number of ships. By 1857 it is estimated that there were as many as 2000 sailing craft on the Great lakes.

The transport of natural resources and needed supplies served to establish the three major ports of Bayfield, Ashland, and Washburn in the area. At their height these port cities rivaled Chicago as the busiest on the Great Lakes, forcing the outside world to sail through the Apostle Islands in search of trade and wealth, ‘in the face of a hurricane west wind”

By Stephen Ballou, Apostle Island National Lakeshore Park Ranger