The Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 1, number 1, September 1917

              96 question boos how the apostle islands were named if such record exists i should like to obtain from it a statement of how the individual islands of the apostle group received their names and how the group came to be named apostle islands h e hale minneapolis minnesota the collective name of apostle islands for the group off the coast of chequamegon bay is nearly two centuries old the first map on which it appears is that of bellin in 1744 this was founded on the information given by father pierre francois xavier de charlevoix a noted jesuit missionary who in 1721 visited the western country as an agent for the french government charlevoix did not go into lake superior in person but at sault ste marie and mackinac he made extensive inquiries of competent observers and noted down the information given him by traders and officers from that region thus he no doubt learned that the islands were known to the french who frequented that place as the twelve apostles and as such they appear on the map of bellin that was issued in charlevoix's book published in paris in 1744 the first english traveler to note these islands was jonathan carver who coasted the shore of lake superior in 1767 and on the map published in his volume of travels london 1778 repeats the name twelve apostle is the first american travelers in that region were those who accom panied lewis cass who in 1820 made an official voyage along the southern shore of lake superior one of the members of this party was james d doty who was afterwards territorial governor of wisconsin in doty's journal published in wisconsin historical collections xiii 201 he says the islands called by charlevoix the 12 apostles extend about 20 miles from point chegoiamegon another member of the same party was henry it owe schoolcraft who later became indian agent at sault ste marie and married a half breed indian girl descended from the chequamegon chiefs school craft proposed to change the name of the twelve apostle islands to federation islands he assigned to the several islands the names of states of the union giving that of virginia to madelaine the largest of the group schoolcraft's proposal was not followed but the