Epoufette has been a fishing village since 1859, when Amable Goudreau, born in Quebec around 1824, established a commercial fishery. More than a century after his death in 1882, some of his descendants continued fishing operations. Father Edward Jacker, then serving the St. Ignace and Mackinac missions, visited Epoufette in August 1875. He reported a thriving fishery, with nets as far as 40 miles distant, which kept two coopers busy from dawn to dusk making barrels for shipment of salted fish to distant markets.