Hansi Johnson
One River, Two Islands
A quiet afternoon paddling on the St. Louis River.
One River, Many Stories
We join other local Duluth media producing articles in April tied to the St. Louis River. “One River, Many Stories” is a University of Minnesota Duluth journalism program project intended as a resource hub for journalists, educators and citizens to foster conversations about our community. Visit www.onerivermn.com for more.
The water gurgles softly as the kayak slips over the river’s surface. It swirls into miniature whirlpools around the paddle dipping into the clear depths.
The recovering St. Louis River estuary once again is attracting paddlers eager to explore its natural beauty and riverside wildlife.
Decades-long cleanup efforts in the lower section of the 192-mile river have reinvigorated it as a playground for paddlers, powerboaters, anglers and swimmers.
Not far from the river’s mouth, the wide bend known as Spirit Lake provides marinas and multiple entry points on both the Minnesota and Wisconsin sides, making it easily accessible and prime for exploring.
It’s little surprise, then, that paddlers are drawn to the half dozen or so islands inside this lake within a river. While the mainland banks here mostly have been developed residentially or industrially, the islands remain – or have returned to – more natural states.
Two islands – one a sprawling half-mile square and the other barely covering a couple city blocks – reflect evolving attitudes about the river and its value to the community. Steeped in history, both attract river paddlers. But while one welcomes visits, the other requests seclusion. Their stories are as diverse as the people with whom their histories are entwined.
Launching from the Spirit Lake Marina, kayakers first see the larger island, in fact the estuary’s largest island, measuring 358 acres.
Clough Island (pronounced cluff) sits on the Wisconsin side and has been home to residential and commercial ventures and elaborate development plans, some as recent as 10 years ago.
Farther upriver in the center of Spirit Lake on the Minnesota side lies Spirit Island, barely 6 acres. The island has long, strong ties to the Ojibwe people in general and to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa specifically. Its wild land holds legends, culture and a wealth of wildlife.
But our journey begins with the “Big Island.” Just up from where the river flows into the Duluth-Superior Harbor, Clough Island provides paddlers shelter from the strong winds that blow off Lake Superior.
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Courtesy Brad Little
One River, Two Islands
Brad Little, president of the Northland Paddlers Alliance, enjoys picnicking on Clough Island.
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Courtesy Brad Little
One River, Two Islands
Paddlers of all kinds – in kayaks, canoes and standup boards – enjoy the revived St. Louis River.
“Clough is the boundary between the wilderness feeling of the river and the industrial areas,” says Pat Kohlin. A longtime resident of Duluth’s Fond du Lac neighborhood and also the sea kayak supervisor for the University of Minnesota Duluth Recreational Sports Outdoor Program, Pat spends a lot of time on the water here. Clough is a favorite destination for him.
“The south shore is sandy, and you can beach there. That is rare in the St. Louis River.”
“Clough is beautiful,” agrees Brad Little, president of the Northland Paddlers Alliance. “It’s about 5 miles to paddle around it, which is doable in a day. You can picnic there and see the foundation remnants of an old building.”
With a bit of time travel, these paddlers would see a very different place. Had they arrived in the heyday of human habitation, they would have paddled among the graceful wooden launches and steam ferries that shuttled families and guests from the mainland.
This island was named for its first owner, Solon H. Clough. A New York state transplant, he was elected in 1864 as the first judge in northwestern Wisconsin’s 11th Circuit Court, a region of few towns mainly connected by water routes and stagecoach lines.
Highly regarded for his fair, level-headed thinking, Solon served 20 years. He lived first in Hudson, then in Superior and became an officer of the First National Bank of Superior.
Far more is known about Solon’s legal career than his ownership of the island, but it apparently was a hopping place back then. Local newspaper accounts from the late 1890s report establishment of a resort and a saloon there (leading to brawls and unruly behavior by Sunday pleasure seekers). It was considered as a site for Superior’s cemetery and for a naval academy, neither of which happened. The island was a popular local picnic and camping site.
Courtesy Duluth Community Foundation
One River, Two Islands
When Robert Whiteside bought most of the “Big Island,” it took on his name and became a family seasonal home. The successful businessman died in 1931 and a scholarship for city students now honors him and his wife, Sophia.
By 1895, Solon moved to California, and died in 1910 at age 81, according to a memorial read into the state’s Supreme Court Report. Years before that, though, in 1904, he sold a large chunk of the island to Robert Whiteside and another era in the island’s life began.
Robert spent his early years in Canadian lumber camps and made his way to the Lake Superior region in 1881 to work as a foreman at a lumber camp on the Black River in Wisconsin. He later bought forest property on Minnesota’s Iron Range, which ultimately proved more valuable in iron ore deposits than lumber. Robert made his fortune developing these mining interests, establishing the Pioneer Mine and expanding the town of Ely.
Whiteside Island, as it became known, underwent extensive changes after Robert bought it. Vast areas of woods were cleared for an eight-room summer residence, a large barn, a bunkhouse, a creamery, an ice house and structures to house farm animals. The farm reportedly covered 200 acres, more than half of the island, and featured an extensive vegetable garden, wheat fields and grazing land. The affluent family enjoyed years at their seasonal retreat, even breeding and training race horses there. Robert died in 1931, but his descendants continued ownership until 2002.
When today’s paddlers and boaters visit the island, they can find the foundation of the farmhouse, which burned down along with the barn in the 1950s.
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Richard Hamilton Smith / Courtesy The Nature Conservancy
One River, Two Islands
The Nature Conservancy began negotiations to purchase Clough Island soon after it sold to a developer in 2002 and later was able to buy it with assistance from governmental and private groups. The Spirit Lake Marina, lower right in this photo, is a good launching point for paddlers and powerboaters.
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Richard Hamilton Smith / Courtesy The Nature Conservancy
One River, Two Islands
Clough Island is open to visitation any time of year if you can reach it by water transport or across the ice.
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Courtesy Mike Kautz
One River, Two Islands
Kristopher Kautz stands beside the interpretive panel on the island. His family placed a geocache there, one of two caches on the island.
While the Whiteside property sprawled across most of the island, at least 10 acres belonged to Edward Porter Alexander Jr., a real estate businessman who came to Duluth in 1889 and purchased the acreage in 1910. Son of a Confederate brigadier general of the same name, Edward built a lodge on the island in 1914. Unfortunately, that same year the family brokerage firm went bankrupt, wiping out his entire inheritance. Mourning his financial loss, he named his new place “Killjoy Lodge.”
Despite its gloomy title, Edward and his family spent many happy summers there, gardening, enjoying the river, entertaining frequent guests and purchasing fresh cream from their island neighbors. Years after his death in 1939, the Whiteside family ended up with the parcel.
By that time, the Whitesides no longer frequented the island. The caregivers stayed for a time, but left after the 1950s fire. The island slowly consumed much evidence of its human occupancy.
Today the Wisconsin side of the island facing Pokegama Bay and the Superior Municipal Forest offers a wilderness experience for paddlers.
“It feels like the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (Wilderness),” Brad says. “Yet it’s only 1 mile from the road.”
Within the last decade, though, developers had a far different vision for Clough Island.
In 2002, the Whiteside family sold the island to the Progress Land Company, which planned to build a resort, golf course, marina, high-end homes and condos and a bridge to the mainland. That plan echoed another grand proposal from 1896 for dance pavilions, cottages and “refreshment places” on the island.
Not surprisingly, the modern-day project drew a mixed reception. Supporters saw increased tourism dollars and tax base. Opponents expressed concern over environmental integrity and destruction of habitat.
The collapse in the real estate market decided the issue. In its wake, The Nature Conservancy purchased the island in 2010 with the assistance of $1 million from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program plus matching funds from the state and private groups. A year later, ownership was turned over to the Wisconsin DNR to manage as part of the St. Louis River Stream Bank Protection Area.
With its grasslands and brushy habitats, the island is a haven for more than 230 species of birds and is an essential breeding ground.
“The biggest activity on the river is birding,” says Pat.
The island also occupies a key position in the river for Lake Superior fish, like the lake sturgeon, that make their way up the river to spawn. Nearby sheltered bays and emergent wetlands provide perfect habitat for popular game fish, such as walleye, northern pike and smallmouth bass, thus drawing anglers and their boats off its shores.
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Kari Hedin
One River, Two Islands
Staff from Fond du Lac Resources Management Division remove invasive plant species on Spirit Island.
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Richard Hamilton Smith / Courtesy The Nature Conservancy
One River, Two Islands
Up from the large Clough Island in the center of Spirit Lake (and upper left in this photo) is Spirit Island. Pokegama Bay is in the foreground.
Meanwhile, conservation and restoration have become a focus for the island. For four years, the DNR has inventoried its natural resources with the goal of restoring its native habitat. “We are working to develop a larger master plan for the island,” says Molly Wick, DNR habitat coordinator for the St. Louis River Area of Concern. “We want to understand the island’s opportunities and needs for conservation and biodiversity.”
To achieve that goal, the DNR is combating multiple invasive plant species threatening native plants. Some 198 acres of invasive buckthorn and honeysuckle and more than 3 acres of reed grass (phragmites australis) have been thinned.
Fourth-graders at Northern Lights Elementary School in Superior helped in the weeding. They took a pontoon boat trip to the island as part of their classwork learning about the watershed and invasive species. Deanna Erickson, education coordinator at the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve, linked the DNR and Northern Lights teachers Pat O’Connell and Justin Olson through NERR’s Rivers2Lake program mentoring educators.
On the island, the students set out hula hoops and counted buckthorn seedlings inside them. Three weeks later, they returned to pull as many seedlings as they could.
“The kids thought it was really cool to be on an island,” says Deanna, adding that after the work, “we did have an enormous hula hoop party at the end. The kids beat the adults.”
The DNR works to restore native species, too, planting 45 acres of white pine, white spruce, white cedar and balsam and seeding 10 acres of wild rice by the east shore with volunteers from the St. Louis River Alliance.
This new era of stewardship is cultivating human interaction with Clough once again and visitors are welcome. A large interpretive panel with current and historic information greets those who arrive at the sandy southern landing favored by paddlers. The DNR encourages day-use of the island, but there are no maintained trails; camping and motorized vehicles are prohibited.
Clough Island, of course, like the St. Louis River itself, has a human history stretching back much further than the Cloughs or the Whitesides. And it is from the narratives of the Ojibwe people that the two islands – Clough and Spirit – first became tied. Before it was called the St. Louis, named by a French explorer honored with the cross of St. Louis, it was the Chi-gamii-ziibi, “the Great Lake river.”
In a 2013 article for Ashi-niswi giizisoog (Thirteen Moons), Le Roy DeFoe writes about a bloody battle, centuries ago, between the arriving Ojibwe people and the Dakota residents. He was told spirits of Dakota men tossed from the Big Island gathered on the small Spirit Island upstream. He also mentions a star-crossed love story between a Dakota man and Ojibwe woman who flee to Spirit Island because their war-time love is forbidden. They are whisked away by a sympathetic spirit, leaving only two sets of moccasins, one Dakota, one Ojibwe. Author/ humorist Jim Northrup remembers a similar, though less romantic version of that story told by his grandfather and printed in the local newspaper. Those lovers, disheartened by the futility of their passion, committed suicide where Knife Falls Dam now stands.
Today paddlers passing by Spirit Island know not to disturb it, but not because of haunted histories.
“We encourage paddlers to go around it, out of respect for its cultural history,” paddler Brad notes.
For paddlers to understand the island’s true significance, they’d need to delve into the history of an east-to-west Ojibwe migration that spanned centuries. That journey started from the East Coast, where Anishinaabe prophets foresaw seven sacred stops on the route toward their homeland.
The migration split at Sault Ste. Marie at the eastern end of Lake Superior, traveling the south and north shores, according to Wayne Dupuis, environmental program manager for the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. “They met at Spirit Island and resumed their ceremonies to help reunite the tribe.”
According to Wayne, it was the sixth stopping place in the journey. From there, many continued to their final destination on Madeline Island in Wisconsin.
“As an Ojibwe, its significance as the sixth stopping place is the most important part of it,” Thomas Howes, Fond du Lac’s natural resources program manager, says of Spirit Island.
Courtesy Sharon Day
One River, Two Islands
Sharon Day carries a sacred eagle staff to a ceremony on Spirit Island, ending a five-day water walk along the St. Louis River.
The Fond du Lac Band bought the island from a private seller in 2011. The 1854 Treaty of La Pointe ceded most of the Ojibwe lands in the Minnesota Arrowhead region to the U.S. government, which claimed Spirit Island, and sold it to a C. Rufus Gaut in 1983. Up until that time, the only building believed to have been erected on the island was a cottage in 1908. For the most part, it received few visitors, and the cottage no longer stands.
The Fond du Lac Band is committed to protecting the island’s wilderness as well as its cultural heritage. The Fond du Lac Resources Management Division has begun invasive species control. “Completing an overall invasive scan of the island,” Thomas says, “buckthorn was found to be the largest offender.”
In summer, resources staff do vegetation surveys and check on the effectiveness of invasive removal. They also lead trips there for historical societies, school groups and ceremonial purposes. “This is where ceremonies were held,” Wayne explains. “There are societies interested in resuming ceremonies there.”
Ojibwe elder and Nibi (Water) Walk leader Sharon Day, executive director of the Indigenous Peoples Task Force in Minneapolis, found Spirit Island to be the perfect place to end her 2014 River Walk on the St. Louis.
In October that year, Sharon set out to walk 130 miles from the source of the St. Louis River near Hoyt Lakes to Lake Superior after becoming concerned about the possible effects of proposed mining operations.
“The Nibi Walks are Indigenous-led, extended ceremonies to pray for the water,” Sharon explains. “Every step is taken in prayer and gratitude for water, our life-giving force.”
The walk extended over five days as participants carried a bucket of water from the river’s headwaters to be mingled into Spirit Lake.
Sharon credits Karen Diver, then chairwoman of the Fond du Lac Band, with the suggestion to complete her walk on Spirit Island.
“You’ll want to go to Spirit Island,” Karen told her. “It was an important place on the migration.”
Two fishing boats ferried Sharon’s group to the island across choppy water on a cold October afternoon. From a narrow landing spot, they found their way up to the top of the steep hill. At the summit, they came to an old fire pit in a clearing.
“We sang four songs and prepared our (prayer) bundle. It consists of all natural foods and medicines that are an offering to the water spirits,” Sharon explains. “Through the walking, carrying the water, singing the songs and making offerings, we make reconnection with the water. When we re-establish this, we will take much better care of it.”
Spirit Island stays in Sharon’s memory and now she is part of its history. “It’s beautiful there. I can see why folks would have gathered there.”
Clearly the spirit of Spirit Island lies deep in ceremonies it has hosted.
“When you go out there, you know in your heart you are supposed to respect that particular spot,” says Jeff Savage, director of the Fond du Lac Reservation Cultural Center and Museum. “Some places have more spiritual emphasis. And that happens to be one of the places for our people – Spirit Island.”
Modern-day paddlers clearly feel this aura around Spirit Island just as they feel drawn to explore and enjoy Clough Island. Knowledge of both islands’ histories enriches any journey along the river. Cleaving its water with kayak or canoe, they paddle between two cultures, between the past and the future and between the heart of the forest at the river’s beginning and the vast expanse of the inland sea at its end.
Crazy Days at Clough Island
These newspaper clippings chronicle wild times on the island in June 1896.
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Superior Evening Telegram, June 15, 1896
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Superior Evening Telegram, June 22, 1896
