page_title: Madeline Island
section_title: Fur trade and early industry
hierarchical_section_title: Madeline Island / History / Fur trade and early industry
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of the Madeline Island Museum
context_page_description: Madeline Island is an island in Lake Superior. Now part of Ashland County, Wisconsin, it was long a spiritual center of the Lake Superior Chippewa. Although the largest of the Apostle Islands, it is not included in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. It is the only island in the Apostle Island chain open to commercial development and private ownership.
  The community of La Pointe, located on the western edge of the island and established by French colonists as a fur trading post, was one of the earliest European settlements in the area. It has a population of 302, with a higher population during the summer tourist season. The island can be accessed by ferry from nearby Bayfield.
context_section_description: For 150 years, Madeline Island was an important outpost for French, British and American fur traders. They brought European and American goods to trade with Native Americans for furs that were highly desired in the European markets.
  In about 1660, Radisson and Groseilliers, two explorers and fur traders, made their way to Chequamegon Bay. They started a French fur trading post on the island, which they then considered part of New France, although it was traditional territory of the Anishinaabeg and previous indigenous cultures. From about 1660 through 1763, a fierce rivalry grew between France and Great Britain in North America, as each European power struggled to expand its fur-trading territories and control the lucrative fur trade. As part of the Seven Years' War, British and French regular and mostly colonial forces, together with assorted Indian allies, fought in North America. With the British victory, France ceded all its territories east of the Mississippi River.
  In the early 19th century, following the exclusion of Canadian traders from U.S. territories after the War of 1812, the fur trade on the island came under the control of the American Fur Company, founded by John Jacob Astor in 1808.  This trade was managed by the South West Company, the Midwestern division of the Astor company. Before 1830 Astor had established a monopoly on the fur trade in the United States. Having made millions, he left the trade before it declined and started to invest in real estate in New York and other cities. The island's fur trading history has been preserved in the Madeline Island Historical Museum.
  After the decline of the fur trade industry, other industries developed in the region, including logging, commercial fishing, and brownstone quarrying. Apostle Island Brownstone was used to construct the first Milwaukee County Courthouse. Since the mid-20th century, the primary industry has been tourism.
caption: Front of the Madeline Island Historical Museum
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