Isle Royale Forums

I was looking at the IR visitation rate over the years and was surprised by a few things.

http://www.nature.nps.gov/stats/viewReport.cfm

First was the huge jump from 1985 to 1986. An increase of almost 10,000 visitors, and then another increase of 5500 the next year. I was not able to find any specifics on how they reached those numbers back then, maybe they changed the way they count visitors or they just estimated back then, but that's a huge number. Also, not taking into account a few ups and downs, visitation has been on the decline ever since to 14,653 in 2009. As these are NPS numbers I can only assume they are accurate. Any ideas as to what would account for these trends, especially the large increases?

One of the biggest drops came a couple of years ago when the Winona was unable to make trips to the island because of low water levels in Superior. That eliminated most of the "day users" from making trips.

Visitor number accuracy has always been questionable, when these numbers are used to partially determine things like budgets, new buildings, facilities, staffing etc. I don't think anyone in the service could honestly deny that creative accounting helps to arrive at the final number. All those years that the Wenonah was at the stockade dock (part of the Grand Portage National Monument) passengers were counted both getting on and getting off as visitors to the monument because they crossed the property to access the boat, the interesting part of this is that the boat left before it opened and returned after it closed for the day. Thats tens of thousands of "visitors" that didn't visit Going to the visitor center/headquarters in Houghton results in being counted as a visitor, yet never setting foot on the island, again, many non visitors that are visitors.
Another reason for decline is the loss of almost all the charter boats that brought visitors fishing and diving in the park, that has gone from 12-15 boats to 3, hundreds per year not going to the tally.
Isle Royale needs more visitors, the downward trend has to be reversed. Getting to Isle Royale is difficult in comparison to other parks, the season is very short as well. Perhaps extending services for visitors later into the season would serve as an incentive to bring more people to the park. Ten to fifteen thousand more people visiting the island over the course of the entire season wouldn't even be noticeable.
I wonder if the numbers reflect the Wenonah running again in 2009?

Capt Don wrote: Going to the visitor center/headquarters in Houghton results in being counted as a visitor, yet never setting foot on the island, again, many non visitors that are visitors.

Well that explains those numbers in Jan/Feb/Mar that I was wondering about.

One of the reports on that page is about how the numbers are counted:

http://www.nature.nps.gov/stats/Countin ... CI1993.pdf

I have no doubt that every unit in the Park Service counts every possible visitor in order to maximize their stats, but it is not always "creative accounting". Visitors to the Houghton Visitor's Center do need to be served, which requires staffing, facilities, supplies, etc, all of which need to be budgeted for.

Bob

If that is the case I wonder if the multitudes that visited the IR booth at Canoecopia or other park service booths at various shows are counted as visitors? If so we should see a marked increase.