By the late 1800s Leland was home to a small fleet of fishing vessels. These early fishermen set their nets offshore in open wood mackinaw boats rigged with sails. By 1905 the fishermen began to replace the sails in their mackinaw boats with gas-powered engines. The new engines and the addition of protective cabins enabled the fishermen to fish farther from port, in more inclement weather, and for more of the year.
Click here to see our photo gallery
Diesel eventually replaced gas and new machinery was added to newly built tugs that made the fishermen increasingly efficient at catching fish, but wood tugs still reigned in Fishtown until the late 1950s. In 1958 the Steffens and Stallman families dedicated two new fish tugs in Leland. With these boats, the Janice Sue and the Mary Ann, commercial fishing in Leland left the world of wood boats and entered the world of steel, with hulls specially designed for the rigors of this part of the Great Lakes. Janice Sue has served in Leland ever since. Trap net fishing began in Leland in 1982, with the launch of the hand-crafted steel tug, the Joy.
It was a perfect summer afternoon. The hot sun was shining, and the breeze was calm. Everything was lining up for a great fishing trip on the FishBilly Charters out of Fishtown, captained by Bill Stephenson and his wife, Barbie. I was joined by my amazing colleagues from the Fishtown Preservation team, Amanda and Summer. […]
I’ve been a frequent visitor of Fishtown my whole life, though I never realized how important the fishing industry and aquatic ecosystem is to this place until I became an intern at Fishtown Preservation. While I know that Fishtown’s deepest roots are fishing, today the town has evolved into more than a fishing village. Over […]
Hello Fishtown, my name is Luke Stephenson. I am this Summer’s 2024 intern with Fishtown Preservation Society. I am currently a senior at Trinity Christian College majoring in Business Communications with a minor in Entrepreneurship. My journey towards learning about Fishtown goes back a couple of decades, but it truly began with Leland. The Leland […]
Leland became the Lake Michigan port for an iron smelting furnace in 1870. Chosen for its proximity to the iron port of Escanaba and abundance of hardwood, the region altered drastically during the construction of the new furnace. As workers flooded the area, the village of Leland needed to expand in order to accommodate the […]
