Jim Kjelgaard 
Spell of the White Sturgeon 

The Spell of the White Sturgeon, first published in 1953, is a classic coming-of-age tale of a young man, Ramsay Cartou, making his way north from Chicago to find work in Wisconsin. However, during his trip on Lake Michigan, his boat sinks during a storm. Ramsay makes it ashore with the help of a horse and arrives at Three Points, ready and eager for the job at a tannery. Cartou cannot force himself to work under the tannery boss and finds refuge with a farmer and eventually learns to be a fisherman on Lake Michigan.