Madeline Island

Island in Lake Superior, and administratively part of Ashland County, northwestern Wisconsin. Measuring some 23 km/14 mi in length, it is largest of the Apostle Islands . Madeline Island is situated just north of the entrance to Chequamegon Bay, and contains La Pointe, the only settlement in the Apostles; population (1990) 100.

Madeline Island was the site of the earliest European commercial and missionary activity in the North American interior; it was sighted by French explorers in 1659, and had become a trading post by 1693. The island is reached by ferry from Bayfield, and includes a museum, an airfield, Big Bay State Park, and the Bad River Indian Reservation.