In addition to the miles of shoreline around the edge of Lake Superior, one report lists 2,591 islands and additional 1,533 miles of island coastline. One of those islands is Hermit Island, named after a hermit who lived on the island in the 1840s until his apparent murder in 1861. The island was home to a number of brownstone quarries from 1860s until the 1890s. This rock formation on the shore of Hermit Island was an arch at one time before it collapsed.
Arch No More
Lookout Point on Hermit Island of the Apostle Island was once a sea cave and then eroded to an arch until it collapse in the summer 1975.
Hermit Island got its name from a mysterious man who lived alone from 1847 to 1861. Few hard facts remain, including his name, although the old maps speak of this place as “Wilson’s Island.” Rumors has it that Wilson lit out for the wildest country he could find, trying to outrun his sadness of finding his parents dead and his intended bride married to someone else.
There on Hermit Island, Wilson built a log cabin after losing a fist fight and no longer the “best man on Lake Superior” and found his own island to be king on. He planted a garden, and raised chickens. To earn a few dollars, he kept up his work as a cooper. Fishermen would stop by to purchase barrels for their catch, but the Hermit did not encourage them to linger. Yet some writers say he had no need to raise cash. They say that on his rare trips to town, he attracted attention by paying for supplies from a purse filled with silver Mexican coins. Others whispered of a store of gold, buried somewhere near his cabin.
Although now labeled as wilderness, after the hermit died, Hermit Island was home to a number of quarries for its brownstone from the 1860s to the 1890s. And it appears that the birds like the point on Lookout Point as it is ‘white’ stone instead of brownstone.
Lookout Point on Hermit Island
