Sand Island Articles

Discover the Park – Islands

Adventure Healing: Can an Apostle Islands adventure be a part of recovery?

Adventure Healing: Can an Apostle Islands adventure be a part of recovery?

Clinical psychologist and Access for All Advisory Board member Dr. Daniel Skenderian thinks so.As a psychologist working in a physical rehabilitation hospital in Southern California for the past few decades, I’ve seen the dramatic effects physical injuries and catastrophic illnesses can have on one’s sense of self, family, and activities of daily living. Traumatic brain and spinal cord injury, stroke, cancer, multiple sclerosis, orthopedic injuries, amputations, along with their emotional impact on lives makes coping with these disabilities extremely difficult. Sometimes removing the...

Senator Tammy Baldwin tours Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

Senator Tammy Baldwin tours Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

Big things happening on Sand Island. Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore toured several projects on the island with Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin on Thursday, September 2nd. The tour, led by Park Superintendent Lynne Dominy, including seeing dock work at East Bay, the accessible boardwalk project and more. The 2-mile-long boardwalk will connect the dock and accessible campsites, picnic areas, water sources and privies at East Bay with the Sand Island Light. The project is about halfway completed. It will be a major step forward in making the islands accessible to all. Friends...

History Mystery: How Gert Wellisch saved Sand Island Lighthouse

History Mystery: How Gert Wellisch saved Sand Island Lighthouse

Gert Wellisch (1896-1966) spent her childhood summers in the Apostle Islands. In 1910 her father Robert Wellisch, a well-to-do manufacturer from St. Paul, joined with three other businessmen to build an imposing, Adirondack-style lodge on the west shore of Sand Island.   The West Bay Club The main room in the West Bay Club Gert by the wood pile at the West Bay Club in 1916 Gert grew up to be a St. Paul schoolteacher, and her small cadre of female city friends became a regular fixture of the Sand Island summer community during the World War I era. Their island adventures, exploring forests,...

History Mystery: Emmanuel Luick photos document life of the Sand Island community and beyond

History Mystery: Emmanuel Luick photos document life of the Sand Island community and beyond

  Emmanuel Luick served as the head lighthouse keeper at the Sand Island Lighthouse from 1892 through 1920 when it was the first Apostle Islands lighthouse to become automated.  Sand Island Lighthouse Along with his duties in tending the light, Luick also documented life at the light station in his log book.  For a while he allowed his first wife, Ella, to assume this duty. Ella Luick was 16 when she married 27-year-old Luick in 1895.  She took over the light keeper's log, treating it like a diary, recording her boredom and dissatisfaction. Then in May 1905, Ella Luick jotted down that...

Lakeshore Logbook – Elise Lennon

Lakeshore Logbook – Elise Lennon

Elise Lennon As part of our 50th Anniversary celebration, we are collecting and sharing the stories of people connected to the islands, whether they are park guests, former residents or former park employees. This is the 14th in our series called “Lakeshore Logbook,” a collection of memories provided by former National Park Service employees. Living and working in the park on a day to day basis, they’ve experienced a lot to be sure. We hope you enjoy their perspectives. Elise Lennon grew up in Bayfield as Elise Weber.  She worked at the information desk at the Bayfield Visitor Center when...

Lakeshore Logbook – Jim Nepstad

Lakeshore Logbook – Jim Nepstad

Jim Nepstad As part of our 50th Anniversary celebration, we are collecting and sharing the stories of people connected to the islands, whether they are park guests, former residents or former park employees. This is the twelfth in our series called “Lakeshore Logbook,” a collection of memories provided by former National Park Service employees. Living and working in the park on a day to day basis, they’ve experienced a lot to be sure. We hope you enjoy their perspectives. Jim Nepstad worked in the national lakeshore from October 1998 to December 2010. He says, "For the first 4 years, I was...

Lakeshore Logbook – Jeff Rennicke

Lakeshore Logbook – Jeff Rennicke

As part of our 50th Anniversary celebration, we are collecting and sharing the stories of people connected to the islands, whether they are park guests, former residents or former park employees. Jeff Rennicke This is the eighth in our series called “Lakeshore Logbook,” a collection of memories provided by former National Park Service employees. Living and working in the park on a day to day basis, they’ve experienced a lot to be sure. We hope you enjoy their perspectives. Jeff Rennicke worked as an interpretive ranger in 2004 and as a volunteer lighthouse keeper.  He played an important...

Lakeshore Logbook – Paul Chalfant

Lakeshore Logbook – Paul Chalfant

As part of our 50th Anniversary celebration, we are collecting and sharing the stories of people connected to the islands, whether they are park guests, former residents or former park employees. This is the seventh in our series called “Lakeshore Logbook,” a collection of memories provided by former National Park Service employees. Living and working in the park on a day to day basis, they’ve experienced a lot to be sure. We hope you enjoy their perspectives. Paul Chalfant worked as a seasonal ranger on Oak Island and South Twin Island for 3 summers starting in 1985, then intermittently in...

Lakeshore Logbook – Jim Dahlstrom

Lakeshore Logbook – Jim Dahlstrom

As part of our 50th Anniversary celebration, we are collecting and sharing the stories of people connected to the islands, whether they are park guests, former residents or former park employees. This is the fifth in our series called “Lakeshore Logbook,” a collection of memories provided by former National Park Service employees. Living and working in the park on a day to day basis, they’ve experienced a lot to be sure. We hope you enjoy their perspectives. Jim Dahlstrom served as a Protection Ranger at Little Sand Bay during his time at the Apostle islands National Lakeshore, from October...

Lighthouses are for lovers: an Apostle Islands love story

Lighthouses are for lovers: an Apostle Islands love story

Love can make a person do crazy things but would it be enough to make you brave nearly 25 miles of rough Lake Superior waters rowing in an open boat just to spend a few precious moments with your soulmate? Well, it would if you were Walter Daniels.  Although best known as the keeper of the Outer Island Light from 1918-1935, Daniels also did a stint at as the Assistant Keeper at the Michigan Island Light from 1908-1910. It was during this time that the young, perhaps more impetuous Daniels found himself smitten with one Emma Hahn, the niece of Sand Island Lightkeeper Emmanuel Luick. It is...