Great Lakes Patrol assigned to operate against criminals who were ravaging the logging industry. These so called timber pirates conducted illegal cutting of timber on federal land and then smuggled the valuable commodity out of the area in order to sell it. The areas most affected were in the western Great Lakes region, along the coasts of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota. Much of these forested areas controlled by the government were reserved for the building of new warships. The illegal timber trade centered on Chicago and Milwaukee. It was nearly as violent as the alcohol trade, which was carried out over the
Queen of the Lakes Queen of the Lakes Queen of the Lakes is the unofficial but widely recognized title given to the longest vessel active on the Great Lakes of the United States and Canada. A number of vessels, mostly lake freighters, have been known by the title. "Queen of the Lakes" has been used as the name of three vessels that sailed on the Great Lakes, but none was the longest on the lakes at the time. The first was a three-masted Canadian schooner built in 1853 as the "Robert Taylor", measuring 133 feet. It was renamed "Queen of the Lakes" sometime before