In the last quarter of the 1800’s the Chicago-based A. Booth Packing Co. rose to a position of economic dominance on Lake Superior. Established in 1848 by Alfred Booth, the company acquired a lease to crown land on the south side of Quebec Harbour, Michipicoten Island around 1860 (due to a title dispute the site was moved to the north side in 1905). Through a series of market manipulations and business acquisitions in the 1890s, Booth grew into the “fish trust” and assumed virtual control of the fisheries of Manitoba and the Upper Great Lakes. In 1934 James Purvis and Son purchased the Booth Company Quebec Harbour operation, which had been in decline. The fishery was taken over by Ivan Purvis in 1936. The station would become home to 22 families. Fishing was as far as Superior Shoal, 75 miles west of the harbour, and at Caribou Island, the Pukaskwa, and Otterhead. Arrival of the sea lamprey and stock depletion led to decline of commercial fishing and Ivan Purvis ceased operations and sold to James Macdonald and Ferroclad Fisheries of Mamainse in 1960.

Following are tugboat diaries of the Booth and Purvis fisheries at Michipicoten Island kindly provided by Morley Purvis and James Reckahn, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.