Another culture known as the Terminal Woodland Indians (c. AD 900–1650) has been found.

They
were Algonkian people who hunted, fished and gathered berries. They used snow shoes, birch
bark canoes and conical or domed lodges. At the mouth of the Michipicoten River, nine layers of
encampments have been discovered. Most of the Pukaskwa Pits were likely made during this time.[36]
The Anishinaabe, which includes the Ojibwe or Chippewa, have inhabited the Lake Superior region
for over five hundred years and were preceded by the Dakota, Fox, Menominee, Nipigon, Noquet
and Gros Ventres. They called Lake Superior either Ojibwe Gichigami ("the Ojibwe's Great Sea")
or Anishnaabe Gichgamiing ("the Anishinaabe's Great Sea"). After the arrival of Europeans, the
Anishinaabe made themselves the middle-men between the French fur traders and other Native
peoples. They soon became the dominant Native American nation in the region: they forced out
the Sioux and Fox and won a victory against the Iroquois west of Sault Ste. Marie in 1662. By the
mid-18th century, the Ojibwe occupied all of Lake Superior's shores. [37]

Reconstructed Great Hall, Grand Portage National Monument, Minnesota

In the 18th century, the fur trade in the region was booming, with the Hudson's Bay Company having
a virtual monopoly until 1783, when the North West Company was formed to rival the Hudson's Bay
Company. The North West Company built forts on Lake Superior at Grand Portage, Fort William,
Nipigon, the Pic River, the Michipicoten River, and Sault Ste. Marie. But by 1821, with competition
taking too great a toll on both, the companies merged under the Hudson's Bay Company name.
Many towns around the lake are either current or former mining areas, or engaged in processing or
shipping. Today, tourism is another significant industry; the sparsely populated Lake Superior
country, with its rugged shorelines and wilderness, attracts tourists and adventurers.

Shipping[edit]

"Ice blockade in Marquette Harbor, June 1873", stereoscopic photo

Lake Superior has been an important link in the Great Lakes Waterway, providing a route for the
transportation of iron ore as well as grain and other mined and manufactured materials. Large cargo
vessels called lake freighters, as well as smaller ocean-going freighters, transport these
commodities across Lake Superior.
Shipping was slow to arrive at Lake Superior in the 19th century. The first steamboat to run on the
lake was the Independence, which didn't appear until 1847, compared to the arrival of the first
steamers on the other Great Lakes beginning in 1816. [38][39]
Because of ice, the Lake is closed to shipping from mid-January to late March. Exact dates for the
shipping season vary each year,[40] depending on weather conditions that form and break the ice.
Shipwrecks[edit]
See also: Great Storms of the North American Great Lakes, List of shipwrecks of Isle
Royale, Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve, and List of shipwrecks of western Lake Superior

The southern shore of Lake Superior between Grand Marais, Michigan, and Whitefish Point is
known as the "Graveyard of the Great Lakes" and more ships have been lost around the Whitefish
Point area than any other part of Lake Superior. [41] These shipwrecks are now protected by
the Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve.
Storms that claimed multiple ships include the Mataafa Storm in 1905 and the Great Lakes Storm of
1913.
Wreckage of SS  Cyprus—a 420-foot (130 m) ore carrier that sank on October 11, 1907, during a
Lake Superior storm in 77 fathoms (460 ft or 140 m) of water—was located in August 2007. All but
Charles G. Pitz of Cyprus's 23 crew perished . The ore carrier sank in Lake Superior on her second
voyage, while hauling iron ore from Superior, Wisconsin, to Buffalo, New York. Built in Lorain,
Ohio, Cyprus was launched August 17, 1907.[42]
In 1918 the last warships to sink in the Great Lakes, French minesweepers  Inkerman  and  Cerisoles,
vanished in a Lake Superior storm, perhaps upon striking the uncharted danger of the Superior
Shoal in an otherwise deep part of the lake. With 78 crewmembers dead, their sinking marked the
largest loss of life on Lake Superior to date.
SS  Edmund Fitzgerald was the latest major shipwreck on Lake Superior, sinking 15 nautical
miles (28 km; 17 mi) from Whitefish Point in a storm on November 10, 1975. The wreck was
immortalized by Gordon Lightfoot in his ballad "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". All 29 crew
members perished when the ship sank, and no bodies were ever recovered. Edmund Fitzgerald was
swallowed up so intensely by Lake Superior that the 729-foot (222 m) ship split in half; her two
pieces are approximate