Blog post 2: The Heart of Fishtown—Fish

Within one week of starting my internship at Fishtown Preservation Society, I realized what story I wanted to tell throughout this blog. With an ever-changing planet there is a growing concern about what will happen to historic sites in the future, and how to go about preserving these sites. I hope to explore what Fishtown’s future might look like by talking to the younger generations that work in Fishtown and discover more about their connections to this historic place. I have learned that Fishtown has been cared for by generation after generation of families, and though the current generation may not fully realize it yet, they will likely be caring for it in the future. Before I can discuss the future, though, I must have a better understanding of Fishtown, and how it became the “‘Fishtown’” that is known and cherished by many. 

To learn more about the history of Fishtown, I decided to start with the heart and soul of Fishtown. Fish.

I was fortunate that on the second day of my internship I was invited to spend a morning working behind the counter at Carlson’s Fishery, located at the west end of Fishtown close to Lake Michigan. It is hard to miss Calrson’s due to the smell of fresh smoked fish that fills the air of Fishtown and the steady stream of happy customers filing in and out of the shanty all throughout the day. 

I refer to Carlson’s Fishery as the heart and soul of Fishtown because the Carlson family has been in business here since 1905, longer than any other business in Fishtown. With the Leland River flowing through the center of Fishtown and feeding right into roaring Lake Michigan, this was the perfect place for fishermen to come, maintain their boats, and nets, and to process their catch. There is documentation of commercial fishermen fishing out of the port of Leland as early as the 1850s. Several of the shanties that you still see today were built nearly 120 years ago. Though most are now occupied by small businesses, nearly all the buildings in Fishtown were once used as fishing shanties. 

There are now only two of the shanties that remain in use for commercial industry purposes. The first is the Morris Shanty, on the south side of the Leland River, which houses the onshore operations for Captain Joel Peterson, who has leased and fished the Joy from Fishtown Preservation since 2009 to catch whitefish. The second is Carlson’s Fishery, which processes fish from all over the Great Lakes, including the whitefish caught by the Joy. Learning more about how Joel catches fish is a future story. What I became curious about my morning behind the counter, however, was how Carlson’s Fishery managed to survive generation after generation through the broader challenges to the commercial fishing industry and what is in store for its future. 

When I arrived at Carlson’s Fishery I was introduced to Cassie Burda and her husband Mike Burda, who are co-owners of Carlson’s Fishery with Nels Carlson. I also met Darryl Herman, who is a 6th generation Carlson. When I walked into Carlson’s Fishery I was met with the overpowering smell of fresh fish mixed with the smell of the lake. After taking in my surroundings my gaze landed on two rows of photos showing the generations of Carlson fishermen who have worked in Fishtown from 1905 through today. The first Carlson, and namesake of the current owner, Nels, was living with his family on North Manitou Island when he and his wife, Sophia, decided to make the move to Leland during the winter of 1904. The family packed their belongings on logging sleds pulled by horses and made the trek across frozen Lake Michigan to Leland. Now, nearly 120 years later, the current generation of Carlson’s strive to keep their old traditions alive and to remain in touch with their history.

Until last year, Carlson’s operated out of the same shanty they occupied since the 1960s, made up of two shanties that had been pulled together. In early 2022, Fishtown Preservation oversaw the restoration of one of the shanties and replaced the other. In this combination of new and refurbished facility, Carlson’s Fishery continues to process fish just as they have done for decades, though they have also added many new popular products. There are three types of fish that are regularly sold at Carlson’s Fishery; salmon, lake trout, and whitefish all can be purchased fresh or smoked. Carlson’s also sells two different types of fish pate, family recipes that are made in-house. Also popular at Carlson’s is house-smoked beef and turkey jerky and fish sausage, which is a blend of the three fish in a tangy smoked sausage link.

If you visit Fishtown early enough, you may be lucky to see Joel Petersen leaving Fishtown on the trap net vessel the Joy, and then returning hours later and unloading the many whitefish that he caught in the Manitou Passage, with some nets set as far away as twenty miles away. Built in 1981 by Ross Lang and his friend George Stevens, the Joy still provides Carlson’s Fishery with some of their weekly supply of whitefish. Cassie explained to me that the most common questions that they receive from customers are; ‘Why can’t the Joy also catch salmon and trout?” along with “Why do we not sell chub fish anymore?” 

Cassie explained to me that there are many rules and regulations that both commercial fishermen, like Joel Petersen, and commercial fishing processing businesses, like Carlson’s Fishery, have to abide by. Carlson’s Fishery must follow rules and regulations set by the Michigan Department of Agriculture, Department of Natural Resources, and the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point process to sell their products. At the same time, the Fishtown Preservation Society’s license, under which Joel Petersen fishes, has an annual quota. Fishtown Preservation must report each catch to the Department of Natural Resources to track his catch against the quota. Along with this there are rules that mandate what type of fish commercial fishermen are allowed to catch and sell. In Michigan, Native Americans are the only commercial fishermen that have licenses and quotas to fish for salmon, lake trout, and a few other fish otherwise only caught by sports fishermen in the Great Lakes. Due to this Carlson’s Fishery also get salmon shipped in from Canada. It is held to the same standard and quality as the other fish they sell.

Carlson’s Fishery receives their lake trout from Native American fishermen Bill Fowler (Bear), who is a resident of Peshawbestown. Bear and his trap net boat ‘Stormin Norman’ past Omena Bay and into Grand Traverse Bay, where he nets for whitefish and lake trout. For many years I have watched the ‘Stormin Norman’ from my home as it traveled in and out of its port of Peshawbestown. I always wondered what kind of boat it was and where the fish went that the boat brought in. It felt like finally finding the end of a rainbow upon discovering that the ‘Stormin Norman’ was providing fish for Carlson’s Fishery.

As far as what happened with the chub, Cassie said that the fish’s population has been decreasing for several years. When walking the Fishtown docks, you will also see Janice Sue, another commercial fishing vessel, though this one is gillnet tug. Whereas the Joy can only catch whitefish. The Janice Sue is licensed to catch chub. When Janice Sue was built in 1958, however, there were not the same kind of limitations on what it could catch. Invasive species such as zebra mussels and sea lamprey began entering the Great Lakes in the 1950s with the opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The Saint Lawrence Seaway allowed big freighters and boats from all over the world to enter the Great Lakes via Lake Ontario and the Atlantic Ocean. Due to the increase in invasive species and other environmental factors the chub population has decreased to the point where Janice Sue has not been out to fish since 2010, though Joel Petersen has taken her out to set nets a few times as an experiment. Cassie explained that until the chub population starts to increase the again Janice Sue won’t be leaving the dock to fish.

My time working at Carlson’s gave me a shift in perspective to see all of the hard work that is done by the Carlson’s Fishery owners and employees. Carlson’s Fishery only uses one machine throughout the entirety of the business and this machine is used to descale the whitefish, since their scales are tougher and thicker than the other fish. Everything else is done by hand including the cleaning and skinning of the fish. Barrels full of fish waste sit in the back, awaiting regular removal.  

Dumping fish waste into the Great Lakes is illegal, so I asked Cassie what Carlson’s does with their fish remains. Cassie explained to me that for a while they would give the fish waste to farmers. Fish waste is a great fertilizer for orchards and other crops, but there are regulations preventing farmers from having more than 1,000 lbs of fish waste on each acre of land. This pushed Carlson’s Fishery to look for other answers as to what to do with their fish waste. For the past couple of years, Carlson’s has been working with William Derouin, an Agricultural Manager for the Grand Traverse Bank of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians in Peshawbetown. He has been working to perfect turning fish waste into a fertilizer that can be sprayed into plants and crops. As a student who studies Environmental and Sustainability Studies, this was really cool to me. I love seeing small businesses trying to decrease their waste and to give something back to the environment. I hope to do future research on how the future of fertilizer might be use of more fish waste. 

Of course, no visit to Carlson’s is complete without tasting one of their wonderful products. I was lucky enough to be able to try a freshly smoked piece of jerky as it came out hot from the smoker. The smokey, rich taste of the hot jerky was mouthwatering good and there is a different type of joy when you know the amount of hard work and authenticity that goes into the creation of the food. During my morning at Carlson’s Fishery several customers came in and asked Cassie how the season was looking and if everything was going well. It was lovely to see how much the community loves Carlson’s Fishery and cares about the business’s success. One customer came in and told me that her favorite lunch ever was a pack of crackers, Carlson’s Fishery white fish pate, and a cold beer while sitting on the shore of Van’s beach watching the waves roll in.

Open 7 days a week from April to November, Carlson’s Fishery remains the beating heart of Fishtown. Its owners and employees are dedicated to preserving the old traditions of processing and preparing fish while keeping up with the demands of the present. I look forward to talking with the younger generation of employees at other Fishtown businesses and seeing how much they know about this heritage right in the mist of where they work. It just wouldn’t be Fishtown without Fish.