When you need it the most, a compass will spin crazily because of all the magnetic rocks. When you circle an island, the compass may continue to point AT the island. It’s incredibly rugged and isolated. We were there two weeks, traveled more than 100 miles through the vast desolate expanse and never saw another human or another boat. Hundreds of jagged rock islands spread out over huge distances and they all look the same. It’s so easy to get lost without a reliable compass (It was before GPS). You depend on the wind direction to get your bearings, and hope the wind direction doesn’t change. Limited food and fuel is always an issue along with the weather. Since you are the only humans around, there is no help. Even the Coast Guard doesn’t go there.
A few decades ago, a friend and I took our boats to an area in the far north of Lake Superior in Canada East of Thunder Bay. There we discovered the ancient village (1840) of Silver Islet, including the original inhabitants (Population 40?). Well, many/most were direct descendants, most of them were born there in the village. (Today it is a "Summer" village, abandoned in the Winter). The village was just like it was in the mid 1800’s, frozen in time, no electricity, no phone.
We were greeted by the residents as if they hadn’t seen anyone from the outside world since 1840. Everyone competed for us to come to visit their house for coffee. We visited with them for a while and heard many great incredible stories of times past, shipwrecks, cold Winters, and death and skeletons found.
They told us of the old outhouse on the hill (It’s still there). Some years before, one of them discovered that the outhouse was built over a 400 foot deep mine shaft. They never used the outhouse after that. The old village store was only opened by special request. They let us in and I was amazed. It truly looked like 1840. Much of the original merchandise was still on the shelves and there were only a few usable staples, mostly canned goods. There were above-ground gasoline tanks there (Too rocky to bury them) but they hadn’t been used for many decades and were rusty. I have since read that the store has now been preserved as a historic site. I suspect much has changed since I was there.
Silver Islet (The Island, not the village) is an amazing story in itself. The village is named after the island.
For a number of years, the 90 foot long island 10-12’ higher than the lake and one mile off shore, was the richest silver mine in the world, 1,250 feet deep. But that’s another subject for another blog. The following link is a relatively mild story that tells but a small portion of the tale of the island. http://www.lynximages.com/silver.htm
If I can locate the interesting articles I will post them someday… spellbinding amazing life or death stories against 40 foot waves that wiped the island clean on several occasions. (Try Goggle "Silver Islet" for a small sample).
A Canadian Lighthouse.
After leaving Silver Islet, we traveled East in gray overcast windy weather. Shortly after, we crossed the mouth of Black Bay where the waves get to build over the 36 mile length of the bay. The 10 mile trip across the mouth is very treacherous until you get near "Magnet Island" (a big rock) for shelter from the wind.
By then, we were tired, cold and wet from the constant waves and cold spray. The next hundred miles or so of the inaccessible coast is uninhabited. Way up the shore we found a few long abandoned fishing camps, one with a calendar still hanging on the wall from 1923. It appeared they left for the day but never came back. Dishes, silverware, furniture, clothing, still the way it was in 1923. It appeared that nobody but us had been there since 1923.
Fish Camps 
It was a great trip, but the best trips were to Isle Royale (That’s another blog).
I suspect things
