ROCK HARBOR AREA

Region: Isle Royale

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Long islands make five-mile-long Rock Harbor, near the island's northeastern tip, a protected enclave where boats can dock safely. Within this long stretch is Snug Harbor, where boats from Michigan bring visitors. There the National Park Service has created its island hub, with a lodge, rental cabins, canteen, and dining hall. From this hub most of the island's day-long excursions on the M.V. Sandy depart. Many trails start here, too. Some lead all the way across the island. The Scoville Point Trail, a six-mile loop, begins and ends in Rock Harbor. It offers some beautiful, rocky vistas to the east. The park service's Ranger III, based at the park's winter headquarters in Houghton, delivers visitors, staff, supplies and groceries for the entire island. (Ferries from Grand Marais, Minnesota, arrive near the island's southwestern tip at Windigo, with another visitor center and store but not many other developed attractions.)

The Rock Harbor activity hub has a 60-room hotel with restaurant snack bar, a small (and expensive) store, one of the island's largest campgrounds, and 20 housekeeping cottages in 10 duplex buildings. Fresh fish caught on the island is among the menu options. Don't count on using the visitor center's cell phone. Public showers here are a joy to grubby backpackers after many days on trail. The Rock Harbor marina is home to fishing charters, canoe and kayak rentals, and sightseeing excursions. Regular evening programs are held at nearby Daisy Farm. The famous Rock Harbor lighthouse and the preserved Edisen Fishery are miles to the southwest, where Rock Harbor joins Moskey Basin.

When Rock Harbor was a copper and silver mining site, it had a storehouse, the mining agent's log house, and shanties and barracks for the miners. Several shafts were drilled, the deepest a relatively modest 360 feet. Like most of Isle Royale's numerous mining ventures, the Rock Harbor-area mines didn't pay off. Later, fisheries located on this long harbor. At the turn of the century several Rock Harbor fishermen built a resort, attempting to cash in on the island's growing reputation as a vacation paradise.

In 1902 Tourist Home Resort opened on Rock Harbor's Davidson Island. Not as lavish as other resorts, it was known for its excellent fried fish, rock-hunting and "greenstoning," hiking, and nightly sing-a-longs. Expeditions took tourists to observe a genuine Finlander fishing operation.

In that same year a lodge was built at Snug Harbor, 1/10 mile wide, nested within Rock Harbor. A hay fever refugee discovered this exceptionally well-protected anchorage. That turn-of-the-century lodge was first called Park Place. Eventually it became Rock Harbor Lodge, with a row of guest cabins on either side. In the 1920s, a more substantial lodging, called "Guest House," was built overlooking the Rock Harbor channel. (Part of it remains as today's hotel dining room.) Surrounded by a colony of summer homes, the expanded Rock Harbor Lodge survived the 1930s Depression years. By then the movement to turn the island into a national park had won out over touristic development. When Isle Royale National Park came into being in 1940, some of Rock Harbor Lodge became part of the national park complex. A few vestiges of the old resort remain today, but the current hotel and rental cottages were built in the 1960s, with little northwoods charm.

Today's simple, spare Rock Harbor, catering to nature lovers and backpackers, is a striking contrast to the island's resort days, when shuffleboard, croquet, tennis, and even golf were favored activities.

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