By Mary Beth Volmer
I often tell folks that the Friends of Plum and Pilot Islands are preserving the history of those that came before us, but I’ve failed to go back in time to those that came before the lights were built – the Native Americans.
While they left no documentation, they left some signs of frequenting the northern Door area, including Plum Island.
Washington Island resident, Dick Purinton has told me natives most likely used the island as a temporary home, probably utilizing fishing, hunting and gathering for survival. Most likely they were of Algonquian descent, either Pottawotomie / Menomonee / Winnebago. However, the Stockbridge tribe of Iroqouis descent also passed through the area headed west (including a stop on St. Martins apparently) so perhaps they made a stop on Plum Island (from an email in 2010).
In January of 1915 George E. Fox wrote an in-depth article in the Wisconsin Archeologist where he described several spots on Washington Island where Native American most likely stayed, especially on the south shore. He drew a map (above) where evidence of encampments were found such as pottery, broken bones, hearth stones, arrows and other stone implements.
Fox wrote: ‘On Plum Island, about the harbor at the northern end, is another village site, according to inhabitants of Washington Island. This is the one reported to the Society by Mr. G.A. West. Two other reports of early Indian cultivation from this vicinity are recorded in “A Record of Wisconsin Antiquities,” p. 320. One refers to cultivation on Plum Island.’
He also notes that ‘A copper knife was found on Plum Island’ and ‘A fine copper ax, now in H.P. Hamilton’s collection, was found on Plum Island.’
Fox ends with these remarks: ‘The investigations undertaken by the author should be considered as a preliminary character. More extended studies of the principal aboriginal sites should be made. Nor should Washington Island be studied alone. Its archeology is intimately related to that of the other islands of Green Bay, and surveys should be made of Plum Island, Rock island, St. Martin’s island, Poverty island and Summer and Little Summer islands.’
Perhaps some day that just might happen!
The article is quite interesting and can be found here, beginning on page 157: https://archive.org/details/wisconsinarcheol13wiscrich/page/171/mode/1up?q=green. It is also included in the book: ‘History of Door County’ by Hjalmar Holand.
The map is included in Holand’s book and displayed at the Jacobsen Museum on Washington Island.
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