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The Islander: Coming of Age in the Apostle Islands

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     Why tell stories about an era that will never happen again, from an area somewhat isolated and, by National Park standards, lightly visited? Why tell stories set in a landscape under snow and ice four months of the year, and cool and rainy, with severe storms, much of the other eight months? Why? Because the Bayfield Peninsula at the tip of northern Wisconsin is one of the most interesting and beautiful in the Midwest. Kayakers, snowmobilers, lake fishers, ice fishers, hikers, boaters, and sightseers dot the landscape throughout the four seasons.

     A few years back, a major U.S. newspaper voted Bayfield “the best small town in the Midwest.” As the gateway to the Apostle Islands, the city nestles on the shores of Lake Superior, directly across the water from Madeline Island, the biggest of the Apostles. Sand Island, the fifth largest in the archipelago, sits around the peninsula twelve miles or so north and west of Bayfield.  It’s the westernmost island of the major Apostles.

     From our dock on a clear day, we could see Canada. How did they survive in harsh and severe environment? The stories in this book answer some of those questions, from the sinking of the ship Sevona on the Sand Island Shoal in 1905 to my teen years and beyond in the 1960s and early 1970s.

     A part of my upbringing included hearing an oral history from relatives of islanders who were there when the Sevona sank. For seven summers as a teenager and young adult, I lived in the island’s Sevona Memorial Cottage.

     My other Sand Island stories involve incidents as I remember them. Since I was not alone in many of the adventures, the stories include islanders and people from around Bayfield. My brothers and sisters show up in many tales, as do my cousins from Minneapolis, who spent every August living next door to us.   Kids from the southern end of the island at Shaw Point—or The Point, for short—intertwined with our lives, especially in the teen years.

I spent twenty-five years of annual occupation on an island in the Apostles and wouldn’t trade that experience with anyone. These stories are a sampling of that life.

 

To order The Islander, go to TheIslander.Store or email TheIslanderBobDahl@Outlook.com

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Sand Island Sagas: More Stories from the Apostle Islands

 

    

      Sand Island Sagas: More Stories from the Apostle Islands is a companion to my book The Islander: Coming of Age in the Apostle Islands, not necessarily in time but in spirit. In a way, both books are a continuation of my grandfather’s Diary of a Norwegian Fisherman: The Collected Diaries of Frederick A. Hansen, April 1913 through December 1938.  It was edited by Frederick H. Dahl, my brother.

     Sand Island Sagas opens with my first trip to Sand Island. In January 1943, barely one month after my birth on the mainland, my mother and father, Alma and Carl Dahl, returned to their East Bay home by walking over the thin Lake Superior ice with three of my four older siblings and me.

     The next saga is a journey to East Bay on the transport ship Apostle Islands, once the lifeblood of the archipelago. This ship made a daily roundtrip from Bayfield among the various Apostle Islands, delivering mail and store-bought goods and picking up the catches of trout and whitefish.

     Saga Three depicts how the dwindling Norwegian settlement of East Bay looked when I was young versus the time of Grandfather Hansen’s diaries: the people, the structures, the connections.

     “Near Watery Grave” details a narrowly averted drowning when I five years old.

     The book gets lighter in Saga Five with a discussion of how kerosene lamps opened the night in East Bay and Shaw Point. Islanders used various well-tended lamps to extend their ability to work into the dark and afterward enjoy social activities such as card playing and relaxing on the porches with family and friends.

     Saga Six discusses the “Eagle Island Open,” my father’s and his father’s fishing grounds and a favorite site my siblings and I still frequent by boat. We drift on the Open and reminisce about our childhood and imagine what life was like for our fishing ancestors.

     Then there are three sagas displaying how we East Bay kids entertained ourselves. “Dry Dock,” “Broadway on the Beach,” and “No Girls Allowed” chronicle a gang of curious pre-teens before television, video games, and social media.

     Sagas Ten and Eleven focus on my mother and father, who grew up on Sand Island. Dad’s mom died when he was young, and his father drowned in 1928 when Dad was in his twenties. My mom was raised in a more stable household than Dad’s, and Sunday picnics were an important part of the Hansen family’s entertainment. In Saga Eleven, East Bayers and Shaw Pointers attend a dance on the mainland.

     The last saga explores my final days as a regular islander. As a teenager and young adult, I worked at Shaw Point for Fred and Kitty Andersen and made new friends with teens summering there. As with East Bay, Shaw Point is rich in history, and it’s where I found new beginnings.

     We all have something worth saying, so let’s say it. Sand Island Sagas is a proud commemoration of Sand Island’s past.

 

To order Sand Island Sagas, go to TheIslander.Store or email TheIslanderBobDahl@Outlook.com