Hog Island is an uninhabited island located off the eastern shore of Washington Island in the town of Washington, Door County, Wisconsin, United States. The island has a land area of and an elevation of 10 feet or 20 feet above Lake Michigan.
History Native American
In 1917, historian Hjalmar Holand recorded "indications of an aboriginal village site" at Sand Bay, on the shore directly opposite of Hog Island. This area had a half-mile of sandy beach, the only such beach on the east side of Washington Island. Holand cautioned that the extent of the village was still unknown.The History of Door County Wisconsin: The County Beautiful by Hjalmar Rued Holand, Volume I: Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1917, pages 20–21 In 2012, United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) staff noted that no cultural resources survey to look for artifacts had been made on Hog Island.Gravel Island, Green Bay, Harbor Island, Huron, and Michigan Islands National Wildlife Refuges Comprehensive Conservation Plan and Land Protection Plan by Steve Lenz, Mark Vaniman, and Steven F. Kahl, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, approved January 30, 2013, page 25 (page 35 of the pdf) (Archived April 7, 2021)
Shipwreck On August 7, 1871, while bound from Menominee, Michigan, for Chicago with a cargo of lumber, the General Winfield Scott encountered heavy seas off Spider Island and capsized without loss of life. Her capsized hull floated north until she ran aground on the shoal extending between Hog Island and Washington Island. Items worth salvaging were taken by residents of Washington Island, but remains from the shipwreck are visible todaySignificance Through Obscurity: An Agglomeration of Wisconsin’s Submerged Archaeological Sites by Victoria L. Kiefer, Caitlin N. Zant, Tamara L. Thomsen, Paul Reckner, and Tori L. Galloway, Wisconsin Historical Society, State Archaeology and Maritime Preservation Technical Report Series #20–003, 2020, Chapter 2, Schooner General Winfield Scott, pages 7–19 (pages 19–31 of the pdf) in the shallow water about deep.
Bird reservation In 1908, A. C. Burrill of the State Entomologist's Office in Madison, Wisconsin, publicly advocated the creation of reservations for gulls or other birds in Wisconsin. He was able to interest many people, but his efforts failed.
In 1911, Charles E. Pidgeon surveyed the island for the United States General Land Office. He wrote a summary:Survey of Hog Island in Lake Michigan in T 33 N R 30 E. Wisconsin. by Charles E. Pidgeon, General Land Office, page 6
The island seems to be of a hard lime stone formation with very little soil but covered with a heavy growth of fir, pine, and cedar. There is a reef extending from the North end of the island in a Northwesterly direction to the shore of Washington Island, in many places barely covered with water. There is much shoal water between Hog Island and Washington Island which makes navigation very difficult and dangerous. The maximum altitude of Hog Island is about 10 ft. above the water and it forms a roosting and breeding place for a large number of sea fowl, chiefly gulls. I saw no improvements on the island.
In 1912, Frank Bond, the chief of the Drafting DivisionSome Audubon Workers, part III: Frank Bond, in The Audubon Societies Executive Department, Bird-Lore, Volume 13, Number 3, May–June 1911, page 175 of the General Land Office was responsible for getting Hog Island protected as the Green Bay Reservation in Executive Order 1487 by President William H. Taft in 1912 as the Green Bay Reserve. The island was the only one in the reserve. Bond's clerk position entailed locating and recommending action on all bird reservations and also preparing executive orders for the President's signature. He was a life-long bird lover and was also a member of the American Ornithologists' Union and his local Audubon Society.Bird Reservations by Raleigh Raines, Forest and Stream, Volume 80, Number 13, September 28, 1912, page 397 Prior to service in the General Land Office he had been a director of the National Association of Audubon Societies. At the time, few people in Wisconsin knew about Bond's work or the creation of the reserve.
The basis for creating the reservation and also three other new federal bird reserves during the fiscal year ending on June 30, 1912, included an ornithologists' report published in the 1890s on birds beneficial to agriculture. The list included game birds, insectivorous birds, and birds of prey. The report showed that the populations of beneficial birds altogether had declined over the previous 25 years.Reports of the Department of the Interior for the Fiscal Year Ended on June 30, 1912, Volume 1, Report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, section on Bird Reservations, page 142
In 1912 there were 56 federal bird reserves, which were all created by executive orders following the recommendation of the Department of the Interior to the President. They were "regarded as in all essential particulars reservations of public lands for public use or other purposes" and were created under the authority of the 1906 law introduced by John F. Lacey, which followed his earlier Lacey Act of 1900. The 1906 act forbade anyone to kill birds, take eggs, or to "willfully disturb" birds upon the reservations, "except under such rules and regulations as the Secretary of Agriculture may from time to time prescribe". The reservations were administered under the direction of the Bureau of Biological Survey of the Department of Agriculture.Report on Platt and Wind Cave National Parks, Sullys Hill Park, Casa Grande Ruin, Muir Woods, Petrified Forest, and Other National Monuments, Including List of Bird Reserves, 1912, compiled in the office of the Secretary of the Interior. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office: 1913, section on Bird Reserves, page 48
Another similar effort similar to the 1908 attempt was made in the autumn of 1912 by Dean H. L. Russell and C. R. Van Hise, the chairman of the Conservation Commission of Wisconsin. Their effort focused on locating and protecting the breeding grounds of the American herring gull. They gathered signatures and affidavits from Door County landowners near gull nesting areas, using federal forms provided by the United States General Land Office. The Conservation Commission forwarded their paperwork along with its own urging to the U.S. Biological Survey officials. Their efforts secured Executive Order 1678 on January 9, 1913,Index to Monthly Catalogue, United States Public Documents, Nos. 211–222, July 1912–June, 1913, by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1913 page 449 which set aside Spider Island and Gravel Island as the Gravel Island Reserve.
The intention for the islands was that they would eventually become nesting areas for Caspian terns, shore birds, and herons in addition to gulls. Another purpose of the reserves was to please the many bird-lovers in the state and to aid farmers, since these birds eat insect pests and rodents. An additional purpose was to improve the human public health of the lake and shore communities where the birds would act as beneficial scavengers.Progress of Bird Conservation in Wisconsin by A. C. Burrill, in Wisconsin Arbor and Bird Day Annual 1913, compiled by O. S. Rice and issued by C. P. Cary Madison, Wisconsin: Democrat Printing Company, State Printer pages 43–45 Additional efforts in favor of the reservation were made by T. S. Palmer of the U.S. Biological Survey and by people in a variety of Wisconsin communities who recorded bird observations in 1912.Correspondence by A. C. Burrill, lecturer on Economic Relation of Birds from Madison, Wisconsin, in an April 30, 1913 letter published in The Wilson Bulletin, Volume 25, Number 2, overall number 83, edited by Lynds Jones and published by the Wilson Ornithological Club of Oberlin, Ohio, page 99
In 1926, volunteers William I. Lyon of Waukegan, Illinois, George Lyon, and Clark Miller banded birds at Hog Island and other islands in the county. They recorded data and sent it to the U.S. Biological Survey.World's Greatest Bird Bander Here, Door County News, Volume 13, Number 5, July 29, 1926, page 10; for concerning the title of the article, see The Inland Bird Banding Association by O. A. Stevens, The Wilson Bulletin, Volume 52, Number 3, September 1940, pages 175-178 and In Memoriam — William I. Lyon, Bird Banding Notes, Bureau of Biological Survey, United States Department of Agriculture, Volume 2, Number 16, September 1938 page 1 In 1930, volunteers William I. Lyon and Clark Miller of Racine visited "the many small islands surrounding Washington island" and altogether banded around 1,000 gulls and Caspian terns. The two men were part of a large bird banding project coordinated by the U.S. Biological Survey involving 1,800 people. Birds on islands along the peninsula were banded by Ephraim residents.Thousands of Birds Banded in Door County, Door County Advocate, Volume 69, Number 19, July 18, 1930, page 3
Wildlife refuge In 1940, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt changed the name to Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge by issuing Proclamation 2416. The proclamation renamed federal bird reservations in order to easily distinguish them from state-owned and managed bird reserves.Status of Federal Reserved Water Rights for Alaska Wildlife Refuges, Alaska Resources Library & Information Services, April 9, 2019, page 9
Wilderness area County hearing On February 15, 1967, a hearing on a proposed Wisconsin Islands Wilderness concerning Hog, Spider, and Gravel islands was held at the Door County courthouse. It was noted that prior visitation to the three islands had been limited to a few bird enthusiasts who expected the repulsive smells and discomforts associated with nesting colonies of gulls and herons. It was proposed that "Public access would need to be prudently limited in numbers and restricted to late summer and early fall when Lake Michigan travel is often difficult."Nesting islands would make Up Wis. islands Wilderness, Door County Advocate, Volume 105, Number 87, January 1, 1967, page 3 No one was opposed to the proposal.Island Wilderness meets No opposition at hearing, Door County Advocate, Volume 105, Number 96, February 16, 1967, page 1
Department of the Interior recommendation On March 13, 1968, Stewart Udall, the Secretary of the Department of the Interior recommended the addition of the Wisconsin Islands Wilderness along with the Michigan Islands Wilderness to the National Wilderness Preservation System to President Lyndon B. Johnson, noting of the islands in both proposed wilderness areas:Letter by Stewart Udall, March 13, 1968, page 13
They are all relatively isolated and seldom visited because of difficult access. The islands are considered extremely important breeding and nesting areas for herring and ring-billed gulls. Other birds of lesser importance are black-crowned night herons, great blue herons, double-crested cormorants, common and Caspian terns, and several species of waterfowl. Though small and isolated, the quiet and solitude of these rugged, wind-swept and wave battered islands offer an excellent wilderness experience to those willing to visit them. The fragile island ecology, abundant bird populations, and picturesque terrain features have unique beauty and are of great interest to the scientist, the student, and nature lover.
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