READ MORE FROM OUR APOSTLE ISLANDS FEATURE HERE.
The Apostle Islands are the 22 crown jewels of Wisconsin, a verdant archipelago along the Bayfield Peninsula on Lake Superior. Adorned with some old growth forest and red sandstone cliffs, they are scattered like a giant’s playthings just offshore, so close you can’t help but want to visit them.
Hike above the sculptured sandstone cliffs on the mainland or paddle along the caves of Sand Island or Devils Island and you can hear, and even feel, that the earth has a heartbeat. It’s the lake water pushing into the chambers, a deep, resonant boom that makes you sit up and pay attention.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
“The lake is the boss,” the locals say. The mantra, credited to Julian Nelson, a commercial fisherman from Bayfield, now adorns T-shirts and channels patient acceptance when Superior’s moods run contrary to your day’s plans.
Human time is nothing here. Archaeological sites, abandoned quarries, logging camps and farm implements have already been swallowed up in a blink of geological time. The oldest of the islands’ historic lighthouses only dates back to 1856.
Twelve miles of mainland shoreline and 21 of the 22 Apostle Islands became our nation’s first designated National Lakeshore (like a national park) in 1970. In 2004, 80% of the protected land was designated the Gaylord Nelson Wilderness – the greatest degree of federal protection, with motorized land travel forbidden – in honor of the late Wisconsin governor and US senator whose passion and vision led to the preservation of the Apostles.
The Anishinaabe, forefathers of today’s Red Cliff Band, came from the east to settle on Madeline Island at least as far back as 1490, and evidence of the presence of humans suggests seasonal fishing about 5,000 years ago.
More an inland sea with its potent storms and 550-plus shipwrecks to prove it, Lake Superior seems ancient and timeless, yet it didn’t even exist until roughly 10,000 years ago. Before that, Glacial Lake Duluth was the boss, covering much of the Bayfield Peninsula and the islands. And even that is recent history.
What compares to the cliffs and their fine colored layers of compressed sand deposited by Precambrian streams more than 660 million years ago? The waves and winds have patiently worked a softer central band of sandstone, carving out cliffs for caves, columns, tunnels and arches that become radiant red in the sunlight at dawn and before dusk.
Apostle Islands National Lakeshore encompasses 69,372 acres, 39% of that is under Lake Superior.
And, always, the waves. On a trail above or, even better, in a kayak right at the source is where you hear that heartbeat.
The glaciers scraped over the Apostles again and again, most recently about 12,000 years ago. Beneath the trees, plant life and hiking trails lie glacial till and outwash.
We think of the lake levels rising and falling, but the islands themselves also rose and continue to rise today, creeping more slowly than any glacier, springing back from the crushing weight of the passing ice.
Come and bear witness. The lake is the boss. And the boss has stories to tell and these jewels to share. And while it might ask you to pause and put your human time aside for a moment, it always beckons you to come listen.
