Hadland Fishing Camp

Though built in 1938, the Hadland Fishing Camp is of exceptional importance because it is the last working fishing camp within the boundaries of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. This camp and its forerunners played a significant role in the commercial fishing industry of the Chequamegon Bay region.

The first major attempt to exploit the area's fisheries commercially was made by the American Fur Company's La Pointe outpost in 1835. Fishermen spent the season fishing from island camps and turned over their catch when the company's boat made its regular call. At La Pointe, the fish were salted and packed in barrels for shipment to distant markets. Local companies succeeded the American Fur Company in the 1840s and the center of the fish packing industry moved from La Pointe to Bayfield, but the pattern established in 1835 continued. At the turn of the century, Booth Fisheries, a national concern, became the dominant packer in the region. The increased stability resulting from a nationwide market brought about increased fishing activity. Fishermen would often bring their families to the islands for the summer months. A small year-round community of fishermen was established on Sand Island, and by the 1930s, nearly every island had known a seasonal fishing camp. Rocky Island had more than a half dozen. The Booth boat would call as often as every other day, and smaller companies would sometimes call on the intervening days.

Booth Fisheries continued to run its boat to the islands through the late 1950s when a combination of overfishing and the sea lamprey made it uneconomical. Bodin Fisheries, Bayfield, is now the major packer and distributor of fish in the area, but it requires the fishermen to bring the fish into Bayfield. As a result, the island fishing camps are no longer needed. Some have been torn down, others abandoned to the weather, and still, others have been converted to weekend cottages. The Hadland fishing camp on Rocky Island is the only camp still regularly used for anything resembling its original purpose.

Christian Hadland came to Bayfield from the coastal town of Egersund, Norway, in 1905. Shortly thereafter, he joined his brother and began to fish from Outer Island. There, in the early 1920s, he built a small log cabin (Building Con the appended map) for use as a 'seasonal fishing camp. Later, Hadland acquired land on the east bay of Rocky Island, and during the summer of 1938, he moved the log cabin there and built the other buildings of the Hadland Fishing Camp. Like the other island fisherman, he usually set his nets in the late spring and collected fish every day until the arrival of bad weather and ice in the fall. Mrs. Hadland and their children would join him when school let out for the summer and returned to the mainland when it opened in the fall. With hired hands, there were as many as seven or eight people living at the camp during the height of the season.