Washington Island

Everything indicates sturdy precaution against mighty winds and great waters, for Lake Superior is of almost oceanic caliber and might, and the majority of the north shore fishers are norsemen, driven by homesickness and hereditary industrial instincts to seek in the interior of the New World, conditions of labor, climate, and scenery as nearly like those of the fatherland as may be found so far away.”

Caryl B. Storrs, Minneapolis Tribune, 1916

Painting by Howard Sivertson

“So ya came all da way from Corny, huh,” said Captain Stan Sivertson, the large man leaning over the bridge of the large passenger boat Winona, which had just tied up across from our small sailboat at the Grand Portage National Monument dock.

I was a kid then. What I remember of Stan is huge hands and big arms (no doubt the result of hauling in thousands of nets and tens of thousands of pounds of fish) - just a big guy. Yet, he didn’t fit the mold of what I imagined an old salt of a sea captain to be. Instead, he seemed gregarious, always with a smile and a story. Even kind enough to accept my mothers invitation to dinner, though the dining room was his lap on the hard cockpit of the sailboat, and whatever ingredients my mother found to mix together from the dark, overstuffed bilges of our boat.

Grandpa Sam's Fish House

Stan was part of the second generation of fisherman in the family, son of Severin (Sam) Sivertson, for whom the quote at the beginning of this post could have been written. Immigrated from Norway, he found a place that looked like home where he could do what he loved to do - fish. What I didn’t know was that the family had one of the larger fisheries at the time, with Stan and his brother Arthur starting a fish transportation company that then evolved into a passenger and mail carrier service. Hence his piloting of the Winona from Grand Portage to Windigo and back each day. If I had paid attention, I would have noticed that he was on the phone a lot, conducting business through his operation in Duluth. And each fall he could be found commercially fishing from Washington Island himself. Work was always a constant in Stans life, as with most Sivertsons.

Of course there were many fisherman and fishing families on the west end of the island, especially given the history of first the American Fur Company operations in the early to mid  1800’s, along with and followed by Booth fisheries in the late1800’s and into the next century. All had their day, but the sinking of the America, an essential north shore shipping and passenger service of Booth fisheries, marked the beginning of the end of large fisheries on the island. Sivertsons carried on, one of the only fisheries to make it through the sea lamprey infestation of the fifties. 

The Johns started the tourist industry way back in the 1890’s, but many resorts cropped up early in the century, with The Island House of Washington Island, also known as the Singer resort, being the first. At its peak, twenty two bedrooms, a dining room and pool room, a pavilion with a bowling alley, and ten cottages occupied much of the islands harbor coast. By the time the national park was established, however, the resort was demolished by the park service. Some of the cottages were assumed by fisherman. Names like Hansen, Miller, Wick, Nicoliason, Skadberg, Eckel and Ekmark spent their fishing seasons in camps along the shore.  The last remaining of those along that shore, with multiple buildings in their compound, were the Sivertsons. Stan was the last to maintain a fishing license, continued by his wife after he died, until only about five years ago.

Two generations later, another Sivertson maintains post on the island, working to restore and maintain some of those buildings for historical safe-keeping. I’m not that familiar with the extensive Sivertson family tree, but I can figure that Jeff Sivertson, son of Howard (Buddy) Sivertson (renowned local artist in his own right), son of Arthur Sivertson, son of Sam Sivertson, makes him part of the fourth generation. You can find him most often single-handedly working on the major project of the season, cutting and screwing or nailing lumber, rebuilding floors and walls, straightening walls, patching roofs, restoring the architecture to that of former days. During my stay, Jeff was restoring the Sivertson fish house, putting a new floor over the one that had been overrun by the lake, thanks to a shifting structure (only about 15 years old) and high lake levels. He’s almost done with everything he wanted to do, resulting in a beautiful interior that easily gives you the feeling of what it must have been like when his forefathers brought in the fish for cleaning and packing in salt and ice. 

Fourth Generation Sivertson - still fishing

He’s most gracious to the ROALPS volunteers when they return from a weeks work on the light. If he’s caught fish recently, he’s been known to host a fish fry or two. On the occasion of the conclusion of week four this year, he inaugurated the revived fish house by hosting one of those events for the crew and other visiting island regulars. He cleaned fish on his new cleaning table, pulling them from the new nearby live well in the floor. We all watched and learned as he expertly filleted the fresh trout. The crew brought side dishes and a feast was to be had, along with great conversation and cheer.  

Jeff and others on both islands have joined to form the Washington Island Preservation Group. (See their page on Facebook and their website). They already get help from weather-delayed ROALPS volunteers with quick ancillary projects, but hope to expand their collaboration with the Park Service, coordination of volunteers, and fund raising, using the ROALPS model as a guide. 

The two islands rely heavily on Sivertson-led restoration and maintenance. Hopefully this new group, with the Sivertson leadership, can parallel the successful restoration of the Rock of Ages lighthouse with historical restoration of both fishing family and cottage family structures on both islands.