Barnum Island: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Isle Royale National Park, National Park Service

Barnum Island is a small, 4.5-acre island located adjacent to Washington Island at the southwest end of Isle Royale National Park. The Isle Royale archipelago is in Northern Michigan, positioned in the western half of Lake Superior. The island is a rustic vernacular landscape with evident circulation and cluster patterns, and remaining historic structures and views help to preserve the island’s past appearance and uses. There are two periods of significance for the island, which was originally called Johns Island. The first is 1890-1902, representing the years that John F. Johns developed the island to operate the first rustic resort. Visitors had been drawn to the area as early as the 1860s, attracted by the isolation and air quality. Johns, a miner and fisherman before his foray into the tourism industry, sought to provide more comfortable accommodations, expand recreational opportunities, and reap the profits of the burgeoning resort movement. He sold the island to millionaire George Barnum in 1902, marking the end of this period of significance. Surviving features of this period include the Johns Hotel, a double privy, the Johns log cabin, a few ornamental plantings flanking the entrance to the hotel, and views. The second period of significance begins in 1902, when George Barnum purchased the island from Johns to develop it as one of the first private resort colonies, and continues until 1939 when the National Park Service (NPS) offered a life lease to George Barnum and immediate living family members. Surviving features from the second period of significance include structures, ornamental plantings, fire rings, docks, circulation and cluster patterns, and views. Fourteen structures remain from this period, including six residential cottages and a private cottage that had incorporated a log cabin constructed during the earlier period. The Barnum Island landscape is significant for its associations with resort and recreational development, particularly in the historical context of Isle Royale. Although tourists were often attracted to the island destination, the site is one of the first of only a few private resort colonies established at that time. It is also important for embodying the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction because the structures exhibit design continuity indicative of a single craftsman. The area played a role in the conservation movement of the 1930s and 1940s, as wealthy visitors to Barnum Island became concerned with protecting the natural landscape from the encroachment of nearby industry. This lead to the 1931 creation of the Isle Royale National Park, an action which offered protection for the resources yet also led to land acquisition. In June of 2000, field inventory and analysis conducted by the CLI team determined the physical condition of the landscape to be in fair condition with improvements seen to be occurring on an annual basis through the work of caretakers Enar and Betty Strom. Integrity of the landscape is high in design, materials, workmanship, and configuration, and the landscape continues to be representative of early private resort and recreational development.

Barnum Island: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Isle Royale National Park, National Park Service

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