Lake Michigan fisherman Lake Michigan fisherman Lake Michigan fisherman Lake Michigan fisherman

Milwaukees Waters in
1835-36:
Diverse littoral & estuary
habitats
40-foot water depth at the
river-Lake Michigan confluence
Milwaukee Rivers mouth at
that date was near Bay View
Area boasted more than 6,000
acres of pristine emergent &
submergent wetlands
Cool-to-cold water
environments, year-round
...lake trout were speared as they preyed on lake herring and perch
fry (Lake Michigan at the Milwaukee River)
a marsh covered by water two feet deep, year-round, and was
alive with fish having run from the lake.
From James J. Buck, Pioneer History of Milwaukee from the First Settlement in 1833 to 1841, 1890
All diorama shots from the Milwaukee Public Museum








What a place it was below the dam of that old mill, in the early
spring for fish, pike, pickerel, muscalonge and suckers used to
come up there by the million, and were taken out by the cart load
by the settlers living near there, a sight that will never be
witnessed again in Milwaukee
(description from the site of 1844 mill dam on the
Menomonee River at Hawley Road)

From James J. Buck, Pioneer History of Milwaukee from the First Settlement in 1833 to 1841, 1890
All diorama shots from the Milwaukee Public Museum

of the quantities of fish that came on the marshes, they would
go up the Milwaukee, Menomonee and Kinnickinnic rivers in the
spring by the million, remaining about a month, covering all the
marsh as thick as they could layI have waded out often and shot
them as they lay upon the grassy bottom

From James J. Buck, Pioneer History of Milwaukee from the First Settlement in 1833 to 1841, 1890
All diorama shots from the Milwaukee Public Museum

Lake sturgeon were shot from bridge at Walkers Point and suckers
and pickerel were observed running upstream in spring, and as the
water receded, fish stranded in shallow marshes became easy prey
for fisherman.
(description of the 1844 confluence of Menomonee &
Milwaukee Rivers)

From James J. Buck, Pioneer History of Milwaukee from the First Settlement in 1833 to 1841, 1890
All diorama shots from the Milwaukee Public Museum


The Milwaukee Public Museums version of then and now
the Menomonee River valley beneath the high rise bridge
Lakeshore State Parks map
version of then and now
Milwaukees shorelines and
rivers in about 1830, with the
blue lines showing the current
shorelines

Jim Kupferschmidt
Descendant of a former Jones Island
fishing village family in Milwaukee
Organizer of the Annual Kaszube Picnics
on Jones Island




Leslie Schwarz Winter
Co-owner of Schwarzs Fish
Company
A 100-year old fish business in
Sheboygan

Chris Svoboda
Owner of Pier Milwaukee
Descendant of four generations of
Lake Michigan fisherman
Lake Michigan
from a boaters
perspective




Thank you, Jim, Leslie
and Chris!

Questions?