Hello! The Isle Royale Families and Friends Association is a registered non-profit organization that is dedicated to preserving the cultural history at Isle Royale National Park and advocating the role a historically significant group of families that built homes on the island have played in creating, maintaining and curating that cultural history.
Remembering beloved Island family & friend, Lou Mattson
LOUIS’ OBITUARY
Louis A. Mattson, 89, of Pengilly, MN. passed away December 31, 2023, in Grand Rapids, MN.
The son of commercial fishermen, Lou was the last surviving member of the Mattson Tobin Harbor Fishery on Michigan’s Isle Royale. The fishery on Isle Royale, and family homesteads settled in the 1890’s at Larsmont and the French River on Minnesota’s North Shore were part of Lou’s DNA. If you knew Lou, you knew about the family legacy on Lake Superior.
The landscape of northern Minnesota inspired Lou to pursue a BS in Geology from the University of Minnesota Duluth and an MS in Geology from the University of Minnesota and the Colorado School of Mines. This education would lead to a 30-year career highlighted by travel around the world while working for M.A. Hanna’s Minerals Research Laboratory in Nashwauk.
Lou’s sharp mind did not rest in retirement. He extensively researched family genealogy culminating in connections with relatives in Larsmo, Finland, enhanced his boat collection at the home he and Peggy built on Swan Lake, supported the Isle Royale Friends and Family Association (IRFFA), traveled extensively, and with camera in hand attended hundreds of extracurricular events cheering his grandchildren. Lou was a 50+ year member of Nashwauk Lutheran Church.
Lou was exceptionally grateful to caregivers at Grand Itasca Hospital, Essentia Health and St. Luke’s in Duluth.
Preceding him in death were his parents, Art and Inez Mattson; and sister, Lorraine Carlson. Lou leaves behind his wife of 61 years, Margaret (Peggy) Mattson; children, David (Gloria), Tim (Tricia) and Jennifer. Lou’s children blessed him with five beautiful grandchildren and their partners; Alex (Aly), Courtney (Michael), Andrew (Bailey), Alexa (George), Ana; great-grandchildren, Amandine and Arielle.
2023 Draft Wilderness Stewardship Plan open for public comment!
On July 28, 2023, the National Park Service (NPS) released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a Wilderness Stewardship Plan (WSP) for Isle Royale. To read the documents in full, click here. The WSP/EIS is now open for public comment until September 26, 2023.
IRFFA has compiled their comments and suggested talking points in the below slide deck presentation. Click through to read the slides, or click the “DOWNLOAD” button below.
Support IRFFA with a 2024 calendar!
This year’s theme is “Dwellings” and features photos of all of the wonderful and varied Isle Royale spaces enjoyed by our members. Buy your copy now!
To order the calendar, please go to Lulu.com/shop and search for “Dwellings-Isle Royale Families and Friends 2024”. A link to the calendar will come up, click on the calendar, add it to your shopping cart and continue to purchase as you would on any other online retailer by filling in the shipping address and payment information: buy now!
Grant Merritt’s life embodied the spirit and cultural fabric of Isle Royale.
IRFFA lost a founding member and core part of Isle Royale’s history in May. Grant Merritt passed on May 18, 2022. He was a tireless advocate for Lake Superior and especially Isle Royale.
Grant followed a familiar path of the Merritt family, who first came to Isle Royale in the 1860s and returned, again and again, across generations, in a cyclical life pattern of going to and from the island. Ultimately, the family built a wilderness camp in the sheltered waters of Tobin’s Harbor where they gathered with a community of fisherfolk, cottagers and island-goers. Grant’s appreciation for humans as caretakers of wild and historical places emerged from spending childhood summers on Isle Royale and led to a lifetime of environmental activism and advocacy for historical preservation. When on “island time” one could often find Grant pondering “the reality of the absolute”, a favorite quote, sitting on the dock in his grandfather’s rocking chair while listening to the lap of the big lake.
We fellow islanders will carry Grant’s deep laugh, disposition, and devotion to Isle Royale within us. But mostly, Grant’s spirit will continue to carry us across those waters that bind us together, sharing a history, a place, and this moment in time.
IRFFA 