They came in on the great sailing vessel in the mid-1800s and they got off on the islands — Beaver Island, the Foxes, the Manitous.
They were strong and husky Scandinavian fishermen who came, finally, to be the early commercial fishermen of Northport.
John Nelson, the Peterson brothers, the Wilson brothers and Louis Standvick were among them. At that time, these waters had not been charted; with no shipping regulations, these early adventurers were free to depart the boats there. Ships at the time would pass on the east side nearer the mainland, but today foreign vessels must pass west of the island where waters are safer.
But even before these men came to Northport, the Booth Fisheries from Chicago came up with 11, 72-foot boats to become the first commercial fishermen here. The island men followed, and by 1880 the fishing industry were really under way in Northport. Many men would become a part of it through the years; among then were Pet, Carl and hams Anderson; Noah Stebbins and his son, Hector, who owned and operated the last coal-burning fishing boat out of Northport; the Wilson brothers, Fenn, Clint, Harry and Verne; (Fenn fished out of Northport in his home-built boat for more than 35 years); Charles Nelson and later his two sons, Bruce and Roy; Carl Schroeder, William Hopkins, Alf and Sidney Purkiss, Edwin Middleton, Albion Anderson (son of Pete) and Ed Carlson.
Later, in the early 1940s, L.J. Strayer came, and his crew included Versall Kellogg and Ernest Anderson.
Every fisherman’s name became familiar to area residents, and then boats became well-known, too. Dubs Plaunt had the Joe E.; the Nelsons had Major and the Helen W; the Wilson brothers owned the Star and Cecil, while Mr. Strayer later fishing on Smiling Through.
Many became dependent upon fishing for their family income, and for quantity catches they stared to use gill nets, the most common method found for catching the large quantities needed to support a family. The nets were made of cotton z— and nylon in later years, as this material, when put in water, would become individual to the fish and so they would swim straight into it. Lead weights were put on the bottom of the nets to keep them from floating to the surface, and wood or aluminum floats were used on top to keep them from sinking.
The fishermen tied buoys to the top of each end so they would always be able to locate their nets.
Returning to the docks, the men would sell to the packing companies which packed the product in kegs of brine or boxes for shipment by the Michigan Transportation Company boats. When the steamboats started operating here, the salting method was no longer needed. Instead the fish were packed on ice in insulated boxes which operated on wheels, and each held from 500 to 1,000 pounds. This kept the fish fresh as the salt method without the salty taste.
The early years saw no regulations, no prohibitions, and no designated areas for the fishing boats, and often the area farmers, too, set nets of their own added income. So the industry, at times, wavered up and down. By 1918, 48 men were employed in the Northport industry alone — men who were kept busy the year around with the harvesting and packing of ice, the mending of nets, the making of boxes. By 1919, Bill Schram and John Bauer joined the industry in Omena.
For years, the fishing business enjoyed a Chicago market, but competition set in, and Detroit emerged in the 1940-1950 period as the top market place.
For more than 30 years, prior to its decline in the 1940s, the State production of lake trout was listed at 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 million pounds.
For many of these years there were 12 fishing boats operating out of the village of Northport alone. The Commercial Fishermen’s Association became a powerful lobby, working through the legislature.
Source: “A History of Leelanau Township” by the Leelanau Township Historical Writers Group
