Photo courtesy Glenn Larsen
Glenn Larsen of Grand Marais shared this photo of the Grand Marais harbor, taken sometime in the 1950s, which highlights the Coast Guard building and some fish houses and boats near Artist Point. The fish houses, which were built on top of a long dock, are long gone, just like most of the commercial fishing on Lake Superior. From 1920 to 1945, commercial fishermen harvested 4.4 million pounds of trout per year. Overfishing and the invasion of sea lamprey—which killed lake trout by the score—caused the harvest to fall to 500,000 pounds during the 1960s, and many commercial fishermen were forced to abandon their profession and pick up a new line of work.
Leave a Reply