Early Settlers in the Whitefish Area

As early as 1838 Whitefish Bay was mentioned in log books.

The Gazelle, a schooner, speaks of it as Fisherman’s Bay. The Gazelle traded around the various Lake Michigan fishing camps, such as Death’s Door camp (probably Rock Island), the Twin Rivers camp, and Whitefish Bay, selling fishing supplies, stoves, whiskey, tobacco, beer, flour, and other things and picking up barrels of salted fish for the return voyage to sell in Cleveland and Detroit.

A New Englander, James Pearson Clark, an early fisherman and shipper, owned the Whitefish Bay camp. He employed Europeans, Americans and some 50 to 100 Indians at Whitefish Bay fishing, salting and perhaps doing some logging and building. The Gazelle’s supplies included hay and oats, probably for oxen or horses to aid in clearing trees.

As the maritime trade of the area grew, Whitefish Bay began to claim its own shipwrecks, totaling six in number. The first reported was the Schooner Grey Eagle in 1869, followed in later years by the schooners Hungarian, D.A. Van Valkenburg, James Garrett, Otter, Success, C.Harrison and the spectacular burning of the steamer Australasia in 1896.

Many other ships have passed through this area, but Whitefish Bay and most other small Great Lake ports declined in maritime activity after the decline of lumbering around the beginning of the 20th century.

For more information, ask Whitefish Dunes State Park, (920) 823-2400.