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Richard Hamilton Smith
Susie Island
With the pending acquisition of Big Susie Island, the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa will own the full archipelago, protecting it from development.
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Paul L. Hayden / Lake Superior Magazine
Susie Islands
An overlook along Minnesota's Highway 61 offers a wide view of the Susie Islands.
The full Susie Island archipelago likely will again be under ownership of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa thanks to the donation of Susie Island from The Nature Conservancy.
The arrangement, once fully approved, will put the island into trust for the Grand Portage Band through the U.S. government. That process has already been started, and members of the Cook County Board have unanimously backed the transfer.
The 145-acre Susie Island (or Big Susie Island, as it is sometimes called) is the largest of 13 small rocky islands in Lake Superior that start less than a mile off shore near Grand Portage. The Grand Portage Band already owns the other 12 islands, all of which are within the reservation boundaries.
Use of the protected Susie Island will remain very similar to its current status and to how the band manages the other 12 islands, says Tribal Chairman Norman Deschampe. “We allow recreation out there, but we don’t allow any kind of development. It’s preserved for the band here and the people here. … The big thing is we can mange the whole area, we’ll be able to keep it that way.”
If the islands had been in private ownership, it’s likely they may have been developed for cabins or seasonal homes. Now, Norman says, “It never will be developed in that way.”
Two overlooks along Highway 61 between Mount Josephine and the U.S.-Canadian border offer good views of the Susies.
The Nature Conservancy’s Great Lakes eco-regional plan identifies the Susies as important conservation sites within its “Pigeon River Landscape,” in part because of their rare native plant communities. Large varieties of moss and lichen, more usually seen in arctic and subarctic regions, have been spared the frequent forest fires and heavier human traffic on the mainland. A 1- to 3-foot-thick blanket bog of sphagnum mosses has spread over the island.
“In this isolation, a pioneering community of plants continues to thrive,” the conservancy reports. “Species that disappeared from the rest of Minnesota after the glaciers receded northward still survive here.”
The island, while host to much undeveloped forestland, also has a history of mining, logging and commercial fishing, evidence of which has been found by National Park Service archaeologists.
The conservancy purchased the south portion of the island in 1971 and the remainder in the 1980s from private parties. The Grand Portage Band and The Nature Conservancy have been negotiating the transfer for a couple years, the chairman says.
“The Grand Portage Reservation Tribal Council and its professional land management staff have a strong history of managing tribal lands and waters for conservation,” the conservancy stated in its announcement of the donation. “We believe the island will be well-managed and its conservation value will be protected by tribal ownership.”
In that northern Minnesota area, The Nature Conservancy also owns the 100-acre Pigeon River Cliffs Preserve north of Hovland and between the Rove Slate Hills and Pigeon River where it exits South Fowl Lake. Protecting the arctic and alpine plants there is part of group’s conservation mission. The Border Route Hiking Trail does cross the property.