I've been through Wakefield, but I've never spent any time there. I've made a couple of trips up the Keweenaw Pennisula. I camped one night at Emily Lake State Forest up there. It was during the week, so the place was deserted other than myself. It was delightfully and also a bit eerily quiet. I slept well. That area was big in the world of copper mining. Prior to being named Isle Royale NP, on this island out in the middle of Lake Superior, there have been a couple of attempts made to mine for copper in the last 100-150 years. Mining attempts on the island were all unsuccessful.
If you want to visit the NE end of Isle Royale NP (I understand they have a visitor center and an overnight lodge there), take a ferry from Houghton or Copper Harbor, MI. I don't know if they go to the SW island end visitor center or not. Grand Portage, MN has a ferry that goes first to the SW end and then on around to the NE end of the island where they spend the night. They also have a ferry that does a daily round trip to the SW visitor center.
It's an interesting place. For decades, the island has been the home of a large number of moose and a pack of wolves. The wolves helped keep the moose population at a fairly sustainable population. But in recent years, the wolf population has dropped to a non-mating pair. It's feared that the moose will strip the vegetation from the island and eventually start dying off from starvation. Last I heard (several years ago), the NPS was trying to take a hands off approach, but things were not looking good. Again, at the time of my visit, the estimated moose population was over 1,500 on the island.
I spoke with a fellow up in MN last autumn that was retired from the NFS and had worked with the NPS on this wolf decline. They didn't exactly know when the wolves and/or moose came to the island, so they were hesitant to reduce the moose population or to increase the wolf population. Tough call.
