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.
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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.
Don’t change anything. Many people—maybe most—thought that was our mission when the Fishtown Preservation Society (FPS) purchased the core historic part of Fishtown in February 2007.
The Fishtown Festival, part of the 2012 Leland Heritage Celebration, was a wonderful day! Thanks to all of this year’s visitors, supporters, partner organizations, volunteers and sponsors. We hope you had a great time (including enjoying a bowl of whitefish chowder!), while helping to preserve Fishtown. For photos and highlights, see below. Don’t forget to […]
Painting Fishtown has long been a Leland tradition, thanks to the long history of the Old Art Building.
Several years ago longtime Fishtown fisherman Alan Priest said, “That’s my home down there. It means the whole world to me. It’s not just a place—that’s my whole world.†For more people than we can know that is what Fishtown is: More than a place. A whole world.
