Manitou Fish Camp: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, National Park Service

The Manitou Fish Camp cultural landscape is located on a sheltered beach on the southwest corner of Manitou Island. The forested island lies in the midst of the archipelago that defines the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, about thirteen miles from Bayfield, Wisconsin on the western edge of Lake Superior. The Manitou Fish Camp is the best preserved survivor of a series of similar facilities situated on several neighboring islands, representative of a rugged lifestyle characterized by transiency, reliance on the land, and distance from family bonds that was typical in the development of the region. The 2.9-acre landscape contains an assortment of rough buildings, each consisting of only one room and many constructed using salvaged materials. The Governor’s Cabin, the oldest structure and the first one on the site, was built in the 1890s. The others, including a bunkhouse, two twine sheds, a smokehouse, a privy, and an ice fishing cabin, were added between the early 1900s to the late 1930s. The National Park Service performed extensive restoration work to the structures in 1983 and 1984 as part of preparing the site for interpretive use. Manitou Camp was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 1, 1983. The period of significance begins in the 1890s, when the first building was erected, and ends in the 1930s, after the remaining structures were built. The camp is significant because it is the area’s only intact, unaltered site representative of a lifestyle that was basic to the development of the Old Northwest; the European male living off the land and whose life was directed by industry, transiency, and seasonal changes rather than family ties. Manitou is also significant for its use as a winter fishing site, and structures of the landscape illustrate the practices of a winter fishing camp. Furthermore, the structures are significant as representatives of vernacular architecture traditions dating back to the Middle Ages in northern Europe, and which were once common but are increasingly rarer in upper Wisconsin. Overall, the Manitou Fish Camp cultural landscape retains integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. The extant buildings, structures, and features retain integrity and are integral components of the cultural landscape. Today, the land use is as Apostle Island National Lakeshore operated by the National Park Service.

Manitou Fish Camp: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, National Park Service

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