page_title: Isle Royale National Park
section_title: 19th & 20th centuries
hierarchical_section_title: Isle Royale National Park / History / 19th & 20th centuries
caption_attribution_description: English: An abandoned mine shaft on Isle Royale National Park.
context_page_description: Isle Royale National Park is an American national park consisting of Isle Royale and hundreds of adjacent islands, as well as the surrounding waters of Lake Superior, in the state of Michigan. Isle Royale National Park was established on April 3, 1940, then additionally protected from development by wilderness area designation in 1976, and declared a UNESCO International Biosphere Reserve in 1980. The park covers 894 square miles, with 209 square miles of land and 685 square miles of surrounding waters. The park's northern boundary lies adjacent to the Canadian Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area along the international border.
context_section_description: In the mid-1840s, a report by Douglass Houghton, Michigan's first state geologist, set off a copper boom in the state, and the first modern copper mines were opened on the island.  Evidence of the earlier mining efforts was everywhere, in the form of many stone hammers, some copper artifacts, and places where copper had been partially worked out of the rock but left in place.  The ancient pits and trenches led to the discovery of many of the copper deposits that were mined in the 19th century.
  The island was once the site of a resort community. The fishing industry has declined considerably, but continues at Edisen Fishery. Because numerous small islands surround Isle Royale, ships were once guided through the area by lighthouses at Passage Island, Rock Harbor,  Rock of Ages, and Isle Royale Lighthouse on Menagerie Island.
  Within the waters of Isle Royale National Park are several shipwrecks. The area’s notoriously harsh weather, dramatic underwater topography, the island’s central location on historic shipping routes, and the cold, fresh water have resulted in largely intact, well preserved wrecks throughout the park. These were documented in the 1980s, with follow up occurring in 2009, by the National Park Service Submerged Resources Center.
caption: An abandoned copper mine shaft
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2008:08:12 11:43:07", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "228", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "9312", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "10158", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/13", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:08:12 11:43:07", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:08:12 11:43:07", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "15157/4096", "EXIF ApertureValue": "118447/32768", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-2/3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "18", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2304", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3456", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "384000/97", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1728000/437", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2"}