Madeline Island

To the east is Madeline Island, known to the Ojibway as Moning-wunakauning, “The Home of the Golden Breasted Woodpecker.” The French soldier Pierre le Sueur built his post there in 1693. In 1718 a fort was erected which remained France’s principal fur-trading post on Lake Superior until New France fell to the English. In 1793 Michel Cadotte established a trading post and began permanent settlement. When Equaysayway, daughter of Chief White Crane and a member of the Ojibway aristocracy, married Michel Cadotte, she was given the Christian name “Madeleine.” Her pleased father declared the island should be named in her honor.

Washburn, Wisconsin · United States