CRUISING ISLE ROYALE

I sle“ Royale on Lake Superior is one of my favorite places to cruise. Established as a National Park in 1931, Isle Royale is located about 20 miles off the North Shore of Lake Superior near the Minnesota/Canadian border.

- John Hippe

It is the largest island on the largest freshwater lake in the world. Actually an archipelago, Isle Royale is comprised of somewhere around 400 islands with the main island, Isle Royale itself, being approximately 46 miles long and 8 miles wide. The combination of technical challenge with striking beauty and relative isolation makes this an ideal cruising destination for me.

Prior to this latest trip, I had circumnavigated Isle Royale three times in my Montgomery 15, a fantastic little cruiser that was very much up to the task. This year, I took my SCAMP, Dragonfly, which I had built from plans and launched in June 2020.

Wherever I sail, I like to learn a little about the history of that place. Human activity at Isle Royale can be traced back approximately 4500 years when the earliest Native Americans came to the island and mined copper. Later, Ojibwe from the North Shore would often come to Minong to fish and hunt during the summer months. In the 1800s and 1900s, the island was home to several generations of fishing families, primarily from Scandinavia. On this trip, I learned more about these amazing men and women who eked out a living on this beautiful island, plying the waters in their small boats in search of fish.