Hansen Fishery/Farm: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, National Park Service

The Hansen Fishery/Farm cultural landscape is located on Sand Island near the northern tip of the Bayfield Peninsula in Bayfield County, Wisconsin. The landscape occupies approximately nine acres on the eastern edge of the island, which is 2,949 acres in size and is on the western edge of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore archipelago. The cultural landscape is a collection of features remaining from its development as a Norwegian farming and fishing complex. The Hansen Fishery complex consists of the main house, guest house (hired man’s house), Boar's Nest, ice house (root cellar), twine storage shed, wood shed, privy, and machine shed (chicken coop). The ruins of a barn, which collapsed between the years of 1978 and 1983 due to heavy snow, also remain visible at the site. Sand Island had the largest and longest lasting Norwegian farming and fishing community in the Apostle Islands. The Hansen Fishery/Farm is one out of three properties that still persist from the original community of farmers, fishermen, and loggers that inhabited Sand Island. Norwegian fishermen/farmers first settled on the island in 1870 and land was cleared for several farms. By World War I, a community of several dozen people lived permanently on the island, resulting in the creation of a school, a post office, and telephone service. Farming declined after the war and ended by about 1930, as many families moved onto the mainland. The Frederick Hansen Farm was determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places on May 12, 2009. The period of significance begins in 1932, when the majority of the nine contributing buildings were mostly complete, and ends in 1952. The main home was built in 1936, and prior to that the Hansens had used various outbuildings for fishing and farming labors while living nearby in Fred’s childhood home. Three generations of Hansens made their living on Sand Island. The landscape is significant in its representation of cultural traditions of the remote fishing and farming community that originally settled and subsisted at Sand Island. Existing structures date to the period of development of the site and illustrate the architecture and success of Norwegian fishermen in the Lake Superior Region. Overall, the Hansen Fishery/Farm cultural landscape retains integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. Despite minor losses to structures, encroachment of vegetation, and shoreline erosion, the buildings and components of the landscape retain a high degree of integrity. Three major agricultural clearings remain on the eastern side of the island. Today, the island is operated by the National Park Service as part of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.

Hansen Fishery/Farm: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, National Park Service

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