Who decided Michigan got the island anyway?

Located just 15 miles offshore from both Minnesota and Canada is the largest natural island in Lake Superior, the second largest island in the Great Lakes and the fourth largest lake-island in the world -- Isle Royal National Park. It also happens to officially belong to Michigan, despite being over 40 miles further (56 miles) from the Michigan shore. Which raises a fair question -- how'd Michigan end up with it anyway?

A drunk reddit user named u/emu5088 -- doing some research of his own -- has come to the defense of Minnesota, suggesting that Isle Royal should belong to the North Star State and not Michigan.

Hello! I'm a drunk person from New York, but I've been looking at maps of the Great Lakes recently, and I think that Minnesota deserves Isle Royale and not Michigan. No offence to Michigan, but they already have a ton of Great Lakes coastline, and with Isle Royale, they are just getting greedy. Cheers.

Of course, one must always take the words, spelling and rationale of a drunk person with a grain of salt (or more), but our drunk friend's claim has unearthed a geographic treasure in the comment section:

"For real though, if you ever get the chance, Isle Royale is an incredible experience (at least if you like backpacking)," says Reddit user nsfredditkarma.

"I believe Isle Royal was given to Michigan because Minnesota was not yet a state," offers Redditor Guyuute. "There used to be a lot of valuable copper mining on the island, and there was a dispute of ownership between the US and Canada. When the US was able to secure the Isle, Michigan was the best option."

"Nah, actually believe it or not, Isle Royale is connected to the same geographic 'plate' as Michigan and actually is separate from Minnesota," reasons experimentalist, pointing to the photo below (Keweenaw Peninsula is Michigan's closest point):

By Norman King Huber, The geologic story of Isle Royale National Park, United States Geological Survey Bulletin 1309. - Republication of USGS public-domain bulletin (see below) by Mineralogical Society of America at [1], Public Domain, Link

"Looking at a map," procures brunchnugget, "I completely support this statement. And I also agree that Minnesota and Isle Royale should all just be adopted by Canada. But I digress. What I really came here to ask: Does sober you agree with drunk you?"

Yes, is the drunk/sober New Yorker's reply.

According to TheGreatestRoadTrip.com, Isle Royal National Park is the least visited and most re-visited national park, due to its remoteness, wild-ness and cost to visit. Because it's only accessible by boat and plane, it's the only National Park closed entirely during the winter months. The island is home to the longest continuously running predator/prey study in the world; researchers have documented the relationship between wolves and moose there for over 50 years. Isle Royal was established in 1940 and is 45 miles long and 9 miles wide covering 571,790 acres.

It deserves noting that the island has its own Beaver Island (beer, anyone?), and its Windigo Center is named after one of Minnesota's scariest urban legends. Perhaps Isle Royal ought to belong to Minnesota afterall...You can read the full reddit thread here.

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