Editing Lake Superior (section)

==History==
[[File:Northern Michigan and Lake Superior.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.35|Historical map of Lake Superior and Northern Michigan, published 1879 by Rand McNally]]

The first people came to the Lake Superior region 10,000 years ago after the retreat of the glaciers in the [[Last Glacial Period]]. They are known as the [[Plano cultures|Plano]], and they used stone-tipped spears to hunt [[Reindeer|caribou]] on the northwestern side of Lake Minong. The Shield [[Archaic period (North America)|Archaic]] peoples arrived around 5000 BC; evidence of this culture can be found at the eastern and western ends of the Canadian shore. They used bows and arrows, paddled dugout canoes, fished, hunted, [[Old Copper Complex|mined copper]] for tools and weapons, and established trading networks. They are believed to be the direct ancestors of the Ojibwe and [[Cree]].<ref name="Chisholm & Gutsche, p. xvi">{{harvp|Chisholm|Gutsche|1998|p= xvi}}.</ref> The people of the [[Laurel complex]] (c. 500 BC to AD 500) developed [[seine net]] fishing, evidence being found at rivers around Superior such as the Pic and Michipicoten. The people of the Terminal [[Woodland period]] were evident in the area from AD 900 to 1650. They were [[Algonquian peoples]] who hunted, fished and gathered berries. They used [[snowshoe]]s, [[birch bark]] canoes and conical or domed lodges. At the mouth of the Michipicoten River, nine layers of encampments have been discovered. Most of the [[Pukaskwa Pit]]s were likely made during this time.<ref name="Chisholm & Gutsche, p. xvi" />

[[File:AgawaRock23.jpg|thumb|[[Pictograph]]s at [[Lake Superior Provincial Park]], Ontario]]

The [[Anishinaabe]] people (an ethnic grouping including the [[Ojibwe|Ojibwe/Chippewa]]) have inhabited the Lake Superior region for over five hundred years and were preceded by the [[Lakota people|Dakota]], [[Meskwaki|Meskwaki (Fox)]], [[Menominee]], Nipigon, [[Noquet]] and [[Gros Ventre]]s. After the arrival of Europeans, the Anishinaabe made themselves middle-men between the French [[fur trade]]rs and other Native peoples. They soon became the dominant Native American nation in the region: they forced out the [[Sioux]] and Fox and won a victory against the [[Iroquois]] west of Sault Ste. Marie in 1662. By the mid-18th century, the Ojibwe occupied all of Lake Superior's shores.<ref>{{harvp|Chisholm|Gutsche|1998|p= xvii}}.</ref>

[[File:050820 GrandPortageNationalMonument.jpg|thumb|left|Reconstructed Great Hall, [[Grand Portage National Monument]], Minnesota]]

In the 18th century, as the booming fur trade supplied Europe with [[beaver hat]]s, the [[Hudson's Bay Company]] had a virtual monopoly in the region until 1783, when the rival [[North West Company]] was formed. The North West Company built forts on Lake Superior at [[Grand Portage, Minnesota|Grand Portage]], [[Fort William, Ontario|Fort William]], Nipigon, the Pic River, the Michipicoten River, and Sault Ste. Marie. But by 1821, with competition harming the profits of both, the companies merged under the Hudson's Bay Company name. Many towns around the lake are current or former mining areas, or engaged in processing or shipping. Today, tourism is another significant industry: the sparsely populated Lake Superior country, with its rugged shorelines and wilderness, attracts vacationers and adventurers.

===Shipping===
[[File:Ice blockade in Marquette Harbor, June 1873, by Childs, B. F. 2.jpg|thumb|"Ice blockade in Marquette Harbor, June 1873", stereoscopic photo]]

Lake Superior has been an important link in the [[Great Lakes Waterway]], providing a route for the transportation of iron ore as well as grain and other mined and manufactured materials. Large cargo vessels called lake freighters, as well as smaller ocean-going [[seawaymax|freighters]], transport these commodities across Lake Superior. Shipping was slow to arrive at Lake Superior in the 19th century. The first steamboat to run on the lake was the [[Independence (steamboat)|''Independence'']] in 1847, whereas the first steamers on the other Great Lakes began sailing in 1816.<ref>*{{cite book |last = Palmer |first = Richard F. |title = First Steamboat on the Great Lakes |year = 1988 |url = http://navalmarinearchive.com/research/pdf/in_seas_xl_1-7_sm.pdf |pages = 7–8 }}</ref><ref>*{{cite book |title = Great Lakes Ships and Shipping |first = Dana Thomas |last = Bowen |publisher = Minnesota Historical Society |year = 1953 |url = http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/34/v34i01p009-016.pdf |page = 9 |access-date = October 28, 2019 |archive-date = July 14, 2020 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200714210700/http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/34/v34i01p009-016.pdf |url-status = dead }}</ref> Ice closes the lake shipping from mid-January to late March. Exact dates for the shipping season vary each year,<ref>{{cite web |url = http://duluthshippingnews.com/tag/paul-r-tregurtha/ |title = Paul R. Treggurtha: Last Trip for the ''Tregurtha'' This Year |date = January 12, 2015 |access-date = January 21, 2015 |work = Duluth Shipping News |quote = Another trip here was planned but has apparently been canceled, making this her last and 41st visit this season. Last year, without a late start due to ice, the Tregurtha was here 49 times. |archive-date = May 20, 2020 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200520193113/http://duluthshippingnews.com/tag/paul-r-tregurtha/ |url-status = dead }}</ref> depending on weather conditions that form and break the ice.

===Shipwrecks===
{{See also|Great Storms of the North American Great Lakes|List of shipwrecks of Isle Royale|Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve|List of shipwrecks of western Lake Superior}}

The southern shore of Lake Superior between [[Grand Marais, Michigan]], and [[Whitefish Point Light|Whitefish Point]] is known as the "[[Graveyard of the Great Lakes]]"; more ships have been lost around the Whitefish Point area than any other part of Lake Superior.<ref>{{cite book |last = Stonehouse |first = Frederick |orig-year = 1985 |year = 1998 |title = Lake Superior's Shipwreck Coast |page = 267 |publisher = Avery Color Studios |location = Gwinn, Michigan |isbn = 0-932212-43-3 }}</ref> These shipwrecks are now protected by the [[Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve]]. Storms that claimed multiple ships include the [[Mataafa Storm]] in November 1905 and the [[Great Lakes Storm of 1913]].

Wreckage of {{SS|Cyprus}}—a {{convert|420|ft|adj=on}} ore carrier that sank on October 11, 1907, during a Lake Superior storm in 77 fathoms ({{convert|460|ft|m|abbr=on|disp=or}}) of water—was located in August 2007. Built in [[Lorain, Ohio]], ''Cyprus'' was launched August 17, 1907, and was lost on her second voyage hauling iron ore from Superior, Wisconsin, to Buffalo, New York, with the sole survivor among her 23 crew being Charles G. Pitz.<ref>{{cite news |url = https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna20679934 |publisher = NBC News |title = Century-Old Shipwreck Discovered: Ore Carrier Went Down in Lake Superior on Its Second Voyage |agency = Associated Press |date = September 10, 2007 }}</ref> In 1918 the last warships to sink in the Great Lakes, [[French minesweepers Inkerman and Cerisoles|French minesweepers ''Inkerman'' and ''Cerisoles'']], vanished in a Lake Superior storm, perhaps upon striking the uncharted danger of the [[Superior Shoal]] in an otherwise deep part of the lake. With 78 crewmembers dead, their sinking marked the largest loss of life on Lake Superior to date.

{{SS|Edmund Fitzgerald}} is the last ship that sank in Lake Superior, {{convert|15|nmi|km mi|lk=in}} from Whitefish Point in a storm on November 10, 1975. The wreck was immortalized by [[Gordon Lightfoot]] in his ballad [[The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald|"The Wreck of the ''Edmund Fitzgerald''"]]. All 29 crew members died, and no bodies were recovered. ''Edmund Fitzgerald'' was battered so intensely by Lake Superior that the {{convert|729|ft|m|adj=on}} ship split in half; her two pieces lie approximately {{convert|170|ft|m}} apart at a depth of 88 fathoms ({{convert|530|ft|m|disp=or|abbr=on}}).

Lightfoot sings that "The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead".<ref>{{cite book |last = Kohl |first = Cris |year = 1998 |title = The 100 Best Great Lakes Shipwrecks |volume = II |page = 430 |publisher = Seawolf Communications |isbn = 0-9681437-3-3 }}</ref> This is because of the unusually cold water, under {{convert|36|°F}} on average around 1970.<ref name="derecki1980" /> Normally, bacteria decaying a sunken body will bloat it with gas, causing it to float to the surface after a few days. But Lake Superior's water is cold enough year-round to inhibit [[bacterial growth]], and bodies tend to sink and never resurface.<ref>{{harvp|Chisholm|Gutsche|1998|p= xxxiv}}.</ref> [[Joseph B. MacInnis|Joe MacInnis]] reported that in July 1994, explorer Frederick Shannon's Expedition 94 to the wreck of ''Edmund Fitzgerald'' discovered a man's body near the port side of her pilothouse, not far from the open door, "fully clothed, wearing an orange life jacket, and lying face down in the sediment".<ref>{{cite book |last = MacInnis |first = Joseph |author-link = Joseph B. MacInnis |year = 1998 |title = Fitzgerald's Storm: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald |page = 101 |publisher = Thunder Bay Press |location = Berkeley, California |isbn = 1-882376-53-6 }}</ref>

In February 2024, it was announced that wreckage from the ''Arlington'' was discovered from a sinking in 1940.<ref>{{cite web|title=Shipwreck hunters stunned by discovery at bottom of world's largest freshwater lake|website=[[Independent.co.uk]] |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/lake-superior-shipwreck-arlington-found-b2495846.html|access-date=14 February 2024}}</ref>