Earth Day in a Sock Drawer
Sometimes you find little pieces of history tucked away in the strangest places.
(a special reprint of a favorite Earth Day story)
Julian Bay on Stockton Island, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
You will surely read plenty of Earth Day posts today. It is, after all, one of the largest single day secular gatherings on the planet. But my guess is that this will be the only one you read that revolves around the sock drawer of a 100 year-old man. Let me explain.
Julian Nelson was an icon of Apostle Islands history, a commercial fisherman who coined the famous Lake Superior saying “The Lake is the Boss.” He was born in Bayfield in 1916 and would spend the entire century-long span of his life on the shores of Lake Superior except for a short stint in the military. As a young man he worked with his father at his Stockton Island fishing camp, put to work so young at chores like mending nets that his father had to saw the legs off a chair so that little Julian could keep his feet securely on the ground for balance while doing the intricate work.
(photo courtesy of Bayfield Heritage Association)
Nelson’s father partnered at the time with a fellow fisherman named Carl Ludwigsen, a “50/50 partnership” Nelson remembers. “They split everything right down the middle,” he told me once laughing at the memory. “I mean everything.”
One day, after the two partners had a falling out, Nelson remembers being at his father’s fish camp when Ludwigsen, the disgruntled partner, appeared with a large saw. “I remember the day and I remember the saw,” Nelson said with a chuckle. “He didn’t say a word. He just climbed right up on the roof of the fish shack and started sawing” intending, it seemed, to saw the fish shack right in half and take his share.
Julian bought out his father’s business in 1938, famously floating that fish shack (with a repaired roof) to a new location on Rocky Island and setting out on a lifetime of his own as a commercial fisherman on Lake Superior.
Fish Tug returning to port in Bayfield with a load of fresh-caught trout
In addition to fishing, Nelson was also active in local politics acting as the president of the Bayfield Chamber of Commerce for a time and later as the Bayfield Mayor, a position he held during the debate over the creation of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore championed by his friend Senator Gaylord Nelson. Sentiments among the locals were mixed, some seeing the idea of a national lakeshore as a land grab by the federal government and others eyeing a potential economic boost. Julian saw it as a second chance to do the right thing for dwindling resources, a position he laid out in an interview with the National Park Service years later:
“I guess I became concerned about the use of natural resources when I saw how all the fish in the lake was being mistreated. And that’s what really made me kinda think of what could happen to other resources that we have. I thought there’s some other resources that we need to maybe take a look at, and those resources were the islands, the lake and the landscape.”
Nelson came out in favor of the proposed designation of the National Lakeshore, which was signed into law on September 26, 1970. That decision cost him his job as mayor, still Nelson maintained right up until his death in 2017 that it was the right one for him: “It was not a popular position. But, I’m very comfortable with the position I took, and I grow more comfortable every day.”
Years later, I spent a sunny afternoon interviewing the 100 year-old Julian Nelson at his retirement home. We were discussing the creation of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, the Gaylord Nelson Wilderness, and Earth Day when suddenly Julian’s face brightened as if remembering something, and he pointed at his dresser drawer.
“Open the third drawer of that dresser,” he told me. The request seemed to come a bit out of nowhere and I admit that I was a little unsure about it but I walked over, pulled the drawer open, and right on top of his neatly folded socks and undershirts was a hand-signed 8×12 black & white photograph of Julian talking with Senator Gaylord Nelson, the father of Earth Day and champion of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.
(Photo Courtesy of Julian Nelson Collection)
I was holding a piece of history in my hands, something that you might expect to find in a museum rather than a sock drawer. But wherever it was kept, I realized its importance: those of us who love these islands, who love the earth, are fortunate that the two people in the photograph had the foresight to protect this place for all of us, the islands and the earth. “You should have that,” Julian offered but I was reluctant and said, “thank you, but keep it for now,” slipped it back where I had found it, and slid the drawer closed.
As I was leaving, I thanked him for all he had done and mentioned that Julian Bay was one of my favorite places in the islands. “I left a lot of footprints in the sand on that beach,” Julian said of the place that now bears his name. “You left your footprints on much more than a beach,” I told him. “You left your footprints in history.”
Julian Nelson died on February 17, 2017. I think of him and his sock drawer every Earth Day and every time I nose my boat the Little Dipper up to the soft sands of Julian Bay in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, anchor her down, and set off to make a few footprints of my own in that sand.
The “Little Dipper” in Julian Bay, Stockton Island, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
— Jeff Rennicke (all photos by the author unless otherwise noted)
(Happy Earth Day. If you are a paid subscriber, look for a brand new essay in your inbox this Wednesday as always. If you are a free subscriber, please consider supporting this blog by joining for just $5/month or $50 for a year by clicking below).