“I want to build a jumbo ark, a stretch 747, and with the grace of God, I will win my place in heaven.” — Nick Lowe

A half mile off the Upper Peninsula mainland, an armed land agent and his men vigilantly stood guard. Perched along the shores of Grand Island, the men — heavily dressed in winter clothing — watched the surface of the Lake Superior ice, looking for the outline of an approaching timber wolf to appear in the distance.

The men worked for the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Co. and its president William G. Mather of Cleveland, Ohio. In 1900, the mining company acquired the roughly 13,500 acres of Grand Island, including its timber resources, for $93,000.

Mather had a deep appreciation for the island which included some remaining structures built by early settlers but was predominantly wild.

“It was his wish to preserve the natural beauty and unspoiled wilderness state of the newly-acquired land, to set its acreage aside for the creatures of the forest and to supplement their number to create a private game preserve,” said Beatrice Hanscom Castle in her 1906 book, “The Grand Island Story.” “Every effort and considerable sums were expended to achieve this goal without destroying the beauty of the virgin land. To him, it was a labor of love.”

Mather established the Grand Island Forest and Game Preserve in 1901. A year later, 11 elk were introduced to the island, which would be followed by numerous additional species ranging from caribou, antelope and mule deer to various trees and shrubs and exotic bird species, like black-necked pheasants, willow grouse and the capercailzie.

An island hatchery helped stock fish to include landlocked salmon, steelhead, brook trout and smallmouth bass.

Today, despite his love and respect for the island, Mather’s Grand Island experiment might seem reckless and strange, especially given the significant problems Michigan’s natural resources have faced from accidental and intentional introductions of all sorts of invasive flora and fauna.

The Detroit Free Press reported that by 1906, there were estimated to be over 300 red deer on the island, many which predated Cliffs’ purchase of the property.

According to Castle, from 1909-1935, Mather’s preserve sold more than 1,700 deer and elk to replenish herds in parks and states scattered across the country. Many considered Grand Island to be second only to Yellowstone National Park in its size and the completeness of its game preserve.

“At a point two-and-a-half miles north of the southern extremity of the island, a game fence 12 feet in height and extending east and west to the shoreline has been built, enclosing the area of about 8,090 acres, over which the animals roam at will,” the Detroit Free Press said in a May 1907 article.

Beyond the preserve and its fences, Grand Island was home to 300-foot-high sandstone cliffs, a beaver dam measuring more than 1,000 feet long, placid lakes, babbling creeks, lush forests, rare plants and spectacular views of Lake Superior and the Pictured Rocks Cliffs to the east.

The preserve fence was intended to keep the numerous game animals, which were imported from various parts of the world, within its confines. Other creatures were kept out or killed.

“The preserve in increasing numbers of the various varieties of game fowl has been the means of attracting hawks from a wide area, hence a well-known Marquette County trapper is employed, whose sole duty is to kill every member of the hawk family coming within range of his gun,” the Detroit Free Press said in September 1906.

“Outside of the trappers regularly employed in hunting foxes and other animals inimical to the well-being of the game birds, the hawk-hunter is the only man who is permitted to take a gun onto the big game preserve.”

Back at the shoreline, where the men stood guard, they hoped to protect the Grand Island preserve from predation by wolves. The men were called into service after a famous wolf hunt in 1906, where a group of 27 hunters, at a cost estimated in the thousands, eventually bagged a lone female wolf blamed for the killing of at least 19 animals from the preserve stock.

Mather was a philanthropist who would eventually have several buildings named in his honor, including Mather High School in Munising and the Mather Inn in Ishpeming. His middle name was “Gwinn,” which was his mother’s maiden name and namesake for the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co.’s model residential town — built to support the area’s mines beginning in 1907 — and located in south Marquette County.

In 1947, Mather was named honorary chairman of the board at Cliffs, a position he maintained until his death four years later. His game preserve was dismantled and the U.S. Forest Service manages Grand Island today as a national recreation area.

Editor’s note: Outdoors North is a weekly column produced by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources on a wide range of topics important to those who enjoy and appreciate Michigan’s world-class natural resources of the Upper Peninsula.