Looking out over the Canada – US border from the top of Mount Franklin
Isle Royale, born of fire, sculpted by glaciers, nearly drowned in water, is a wilderness wonderland left mostly unaltered by man’s creations. Millions of years ago this archipelago of about 400 islands was formed by what scientists believe to have been the world’s largest lava flow. An amount of lava so immense that the earth’s surface sunk under its weight, forming the Superior basin. As the basin formed, Isle Royale began to rise and tilt. Today, effects of this ancient geologic activity can still be seen in Isle Royale’s ridgelines. The northwest ridges are generally steep and rugged, because the lagging edge ripped away from the crust. The leading edge (southeast slope) is more gradual, as it faces the point of compression.
About 10,000 years ago the last glacier to reach Lake Superior receded. As it scraped the island’s ridgelines, pulverizing rock, a thin layer of soil was left behind. As the glacier melted, Isle Royale appeared and water poured into Lake Superior. Wind and water brought plant life to the island. Birds and insects arrived. Moose and caribou swam 15 miles from Canada’s shoreline. An unseasonably cold winter allowed wolves to reach the island by crossing a frozen sheet of ice.
The trip to these remote islands, while not nearly as difficult as it was for plants and animals, is still challenging for humans. Isle Royale remains untethered to the mainland, completely inaccessible to motorists. The only way to reach the park is by boat or seaplane. Diehard backpackers and paddlers make the trip across Lake Superior to immerse themselves in something increasingly scarce: undeveloped wilderness.
Long before tourists stepped foot on the island, Indians were exploring its ridges and shorelines. Thousands of shallow pits indicate they were mining copper here more than 4,000 years ago. They continued to mine for some 1,500 years, but no one knows why. Benjamin Franklin was well aware of the mineral’s value. Some historians believe Franklin insisted the Treaty of Paris draw the border between a newly formed United States and England’s Canada north of Isle Royale because of its copper. By the 1920s, lumber and mining companies—having exhausted nearly all the dollarable resources of Michigan’s mainland—eyed the island’s trees and minerals. Albert Stoll, a journalist for the Detroit News, wanted to preserve what commercial interests sought to exploit. Inspired by Stoll’s passion and enthusiasm, the Detroit News backed his interest and launched a decade-long campaign to protect the region as a national park. In 1931 the federal government acted upon their pleas. President Herbert Hoover signed into law a bill creating Isle Royale National Park, provided no federal funds were used to acquire land. Timing couldn’t have been worse as the economy was reeling during the Great Depression and money was hard to come by. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ignored the federal mandate and steered funds from the New Deal to buy land for the park, preserving one of the most majestic and undeveloped regions of the contiguous United States.