Isle Royale Visitor Statistics 1940-2019

Questions regarding the history of the island and historical places on the island.

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Montana
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Isle Royale Visitor Statistics 1940-2019

Post by Montana »

The National Park Service released visitor numbers for all the parks for 2019, you can see Isle Royale's number in the attachment or by clicking on this link:

https://irma.nps.gov/STATS/SSRSReports/ ... ?Park=ISRO
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Annual Park Recreation Visitation Isle Royale (1904 - Last Calendar Year).pdf
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Re: Isle Royale Visitor Statistics 1940-2019

Post by torpified »

the numbers oscillate a lot --- huge jumps around 1985 and 2015, for instance. Maybe it's time for a predator-prey-tourist cycle study?
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Re: Isle Royale Visitor Statistics 1940-2019

Post by dcclark »

I recall a recent thread (maybe in the Facebook group?) where somebody pointed out that the method of counting visitors changed at several points. I think that one of the changes was in how the park counts people who come to the Houghton visitor center rather than visit the island itself, and another change related to how the park counts lodge visitors.

Here's a report that is broken down in much more detail: visitors by type.

Take a look at the 2015 vs. 2016 numbers, for example. The number of "Concessionaire Lodging" visitors jumps by 3000, while "Backcountry Campers" drop by more than 7000, and "Miscellaneous Overnight Stays" increases by nearly 12000!

(At least the number of RV Campers has remained constant...)
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Re: Isle Royale Visitor Statistics 1940-2019

Post by Montana »

It's interesting looking at both reports -- it seems the first report counts total number of visitors, the report you posted seems to count overnight stays. I do love that RV line!
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