Our National Parks
Some Native cultures follow a philosophy called “Seventh Generation” – making decisions today based on what’s best for children of the future. That philosophy resonates for the head keepers of the U.S. national parks on Lake Superior.
“We’re in the perpetuity business,” says Bob Krumenaker, superintendent of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.
“The park service is kind of the living library for what makes the U.S. the U.S.,” echoes Phyllis Green, superintendent of Isle Royale National Park.
Basically, parks – national, state, provincial or municipal – all come down to the same thing: Investing the natural beauty and human history of exceptional places into our communal savings account.
While often wild in nature, few represent untouched wilderness; their human histories began when the glaciers receded. In creating parks, we often displace families whose roots reach long into the land, as was the case for Isle Royale and the Apostle Islands, where people lived, worked and recreated. We owe thanks to them and their descendants. Today, we can also thank those who keep these spaces for us – the park staff, volunteers, friends groups and descendants of those first families.
In acknowledging the 100th anniversary of the U.S. National Park Service this year, we celebrate our own Lake Superior national parks with these brief introductions. We encourage you to “Find Your Park(s)” all around the Big Lake and to see that we’ve invested wisely.
Isle Royale National Park, Michigan
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Todd Verbeek
Our National Parks
Isle Royale moose, once at 2,400, are about half that population, though it rose last year. The park hosts Moose Watch expeditions May through August.
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National Park Service
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Isle Royale has an underwater component with its many wrecks, like the Glenlyon, a steam freighter that sank off Menagerie Island in 1924.
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Rock of Ages Lighthouse Preservation Society
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The Rock of Ages Lighthouse Preservation Society is delivering some much-needed TLC to the lighthouse.
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National Park Service
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A boardwalk bog trail features ferns and flora curiosities like carnivorous plants.
You might know Isle Royale National Park for its 58-year wolf-moose study (the world’s longest). You might know it for its 165 miles of wilderness trails, its four lighthouses or dozen or so vessels wrecked there.
It’s likely that even if you know of it, you’ve never visited. Isle Royale is one of the least-visited U.S. park with an annual average of fewer than 18,000 visitors.
But once you visit, you likely return. “We have one of the highest re-visit rates in the country,” says Phyllis Green, park superintendent, based in Houghton. “It’s a park people just keep coming back to.”
Established in 1940, Isle Royale was the first national park by (or actually within) Lake Superior, 18 years ahead of Grand Portage National Monument.
It was the first park that Phyllis, an Upper Peninsula native, visited. “I was about 6. … It was a pretty magical experience.”
Isle Royale, at 45 miles long and 9 miles wide, is the largest island on Lake Superior. The extended park, with more than 450 islands and islets, covers 850 square miles. A trail travels the spine of the densely forested Greenstone Ridge from the southwest visitor center at Windigo beyond the northeastern Rock Harbor center.
The archipelago’s human history starts 4,500 years ago, evidenced by ancient copper-mining pits. In 1875, discovery of a 5,778-pound copper piece launched a mine that once employed 150. Lumber has been harvested from portions of the island. Commercial fishing began with the fur trade and stretched to establishment of the park, when families had to sell. Some negotiated “life leases” that end with the death of the holder. Descendants maintain connections to the island, some in the Isle Royale Friends and Family Association. More than 189 historic structures, like the Edisen fishery and Johns Hotel, remain.
The ecologically unique Isle Royale earned designation as an International Biosphere Reserve in 1980. It hosts about 19 mammal species. Its most famous residents, wolves, once numbered 50, but the latest count logs only two. Park managers are considering options for wolves with respect to their place in the island’s ecosystem past, present and future and within the park’s wilderness designation.
The park’s fragile ecosystem makes it particularly susceptible to invasive species, and Phyllis has championed ballast-water treatment studies to control introduction of invasives while contributing to better health for the whole Lake, another perk gleaned from a park.
Superintendent’s park tip: “You don’t have to be a hardcore backpacker to enjoy Isle Royale.” Most people overnight in the shelters, at campsites or on their own boat, but Phyllis points out Rock Harbor Lodge or the possibility of doing just a day trip via ferry.
Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Wisconsin
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Don Albrecht
Our National Parks
A popular Apostle Islands Cruise tour is a late-in-the-day trip that reaches the Devils Island sea caves at the best sun angle for photographs.
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National Park Service
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Visitors arrive to the Raspberry Island lighthouse by ferry or by their own kayak, powerboat or sailboat. A historic lightkeeper (a park ranger in period costume) often greets them.
It’s very likely that visiting Jesuit priests bestowed the name “Apostle” on the archipelago of islands near Bayfield, but they missed the head count if they meant to honor 12 disciples. There are 22 islands, and all but one (Madeline) are part of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore along with 12 miles of mainland shoreline.
The lakeshore grew from local support, promoted by Senator Gaylord Nelson and solidified after a visit by President John F. Kennedy. As on Isle Royale, people had homes and creating a lakeshore in 1970 meant that the “public interest” displaced the private landowners. Some took “life leases” similar to those at Isle Royale.
Ojibwe families and later non-Native farmers, loggers, fishing families and quarrymen lived here, at least seasonally. Today one can find remains, such as a brownstone quarry at Basswood Island and a schoolhouse on Sand Island.
Lighthouse keepers also lived here. Historian F. Ross Holland Jr. said the Apostles had the “largest and finest single collection of lighthouses in the country.” With seven light stations, the park faces costly maintenance on needy historic structures. This year, says Superintendent Bob Krumenaker, the lakeshore will “put the bow” on a three-year, $7-million historic preservation project at five stations.
Kayaking and sailing are extremely popular here. Campsites exist on most (though watch for bear alerts on Oak and Sand islands). Visitors can arrive via cruise tours. The annual Apostle Islands Lighthouse Celebration features tours to lighthouses.
The stunning sea caves, carved by waves deep into some red sandstone shores, are big attractions. In the winter of 2013-14, a rare hard freeze on the Lake allowed foot travel to the mainland sea caves turned “ice caves.” Photos of the phenomenon went viral online, then visitation went wild. Tens of thousands arrived from as far as Japan in January and February when staffing is at an ebb. By March, the park logged 75 percent of its usual annual visitation. Rangers from other parks were brought to help, and local towns pitched in to handle extra traffic and costs.
Bob, who’s worked at several parks, including at Isle Royale, appreciates our kind of local support. “It’s one of the most engaging places I’ve lived. People care.”
Superintendent’s park tip: “Trails are really one of the hidden secrets of this park.” Besides the easily accessible mainland trail, Bob favors trails on Outer and Oak islands. Major work will be completed by mid-August on the Outer Island trail and will make it a great wilderness hike.
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Michigan
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John McCormick
Our National Parks
Miners Castle had two “turrets” until the back one tumbled into the water in 2006. It’s one of many named sandstone formations in Pictured Rocks.
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John McCormick
Our National Parks
Grand Sable Dunes near the Log Slide stretches into infinity. The wind- and wave-swept dunes here can rise to nearly 300 feet above the water. Many a visitor has found it easy to reach the bottom and a lifetime to climb back up.
The first U.S. national lakeshore, designated in 1966, spans 42 miles of shoreline lined by brilliantly colored sandstone cliffs towering 200 feet up from the water and by wave-and-wind-blown sand dunes steeply angled and soaring as high as 275 feet.
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is remarkable. Cliff faces record minerals in color streaks: iron red and orange, copper green and blue, manganese black and lime white. They “present some of the most sublime and commanding views in nature,” Henry Schoolcraft noted in his 1821 travel memoirs.
The 15 miles just of the Pictured Rocks take center stage, but the park features many spectacular sights. Seasonal waterfalls jettison from high cliffs into the Lake. The Grand Sable Dunes, all 5 square miles of them, offer an almost alien sandscape reaching impossibly high.
“The combination of all these beautiful attributes in one place – the dunes, the beaches, the water courses and the cliffs. It’s kind of storybook,” says Superintendent Laura Rotegard, who arrived in May 2015. “I think there’s something absolutely dazzling about this Lake; I’ve always thought that. … It just has a spiritual quality to it.”
Laura wants to boost recognition of the park’s cultural attributes, including its six lighthouses or light stations. A great view of the remote Au Sable Lighthouse, one of her favorites, can be seen from another historic place, the Log Slide where lumbermen used a chute to send logs 300 feet down to the Lake for transport.
Park visitation boomed last year, fueled by the NPS centennial, Pure Michigan promotion, great weather and cheap gas, Laura says. In 2015, the 723,178 visitors represented almost a 40 percent increase over 2014.
Kayakers abound. Paddling is charming, when the Lake cooperates. Safety issues arise when novice kayakers, sometimes using inadequate river kayaks, journey too far onto the unpredictable Lake beside cliffs with no landing room. Park staff and veteran kayak volunteers are creating safety programs and protocols.
The park has a life in winter, too, and is becoming well known for snowshoeing and ice climbing.
Superintendent’s park tip: “The Lakeshore Trail is just phenomenal. It’s like hiking Big Sur (in California) – wide open, crashing waves, the natural sound overwhelming you.”
Grand Portage National Monument, Minnesota
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National Park Service
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Seen from Mt. Rose, the Grand Portage National Monument depot looks ready to greet voyageurs and fur traders. Straight below where this photo was taken is the new visitor center, nestled into the hill. The island in Grand Portage Bay was called Isle au Mouton (sheep island) by the voyageurs and more recently Pete’s Island after a local fisherman.
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National Park Service
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It’s all about the history here and this teacher demonstrates fingerweaving at the Ojibwe Village for a re-enactor during the Grand Portage Rendezvous & Powwow.
Not all NPS sites are set aside because of their natural attributes; some are preserved because of their human history. Such is the case with the Grand Portage National Monument near the international border in Minnesota, the second oldest national park beside Lake Superior (designated in 1958).
“I never saw Lake Superior until I was in high school,” says Superintendent Tim Cochrane, a St. Paul native. “It kind of blew my socks off. I have not recovered since.”
Perhaps to keep close to his socks, Tim worked seasonally on Isle Royale as a youth and later as a park historian there. After working with parks in Alaska, he took the Grand Portage job in 1997.
Tim’s enthusiasm for parks in general and for his park in particular stems from what he believes we gain from them. “They rally both your heart and your mind. It might be wilderness, and it might be the deep, deep history.”
The 710-acre Grand Portage National Monument offers both. It centers at the main depot used by the North West Company from 1784 to 1802 and encompasses the former site of Fort Charlotte on the Pigeon River. The two sites are linked by the park’s 8.5-mile Grand Portage. On this footpath, you see 2 billion-year-old broken slabs of green-gray greywacke, part of the Rove Formation.
About half of the acreage for this national site, within the reservation boundaries of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, was donated by the band, which has a joint management agreement with the NPS.
Interpreting and preserving the past is a large part of the mission here. Besides the reconstructed palisade and buildings, park rangers in period dress interpret the monument’s many stories. Its annual Rendezvous Days and Pow Wow draws crowds of re-enactors and Ojibwe dancers in splendid regalia.
In summer, a delightful addition is the historic garden by the Ojibwe Village that grows vegetable varieties from the 1700s. Here in Grand Portage, community members still plant “Three Sisters Gardens,” with the beans, squash and corn that remain part of the Ojibwe culture.
Within the monument acreage, more than 210,000 artifacts have been recovered. Several pieces are displayed in the wooden depot building and also in the Heritage Center opened in 2007. The center, which has floor-to-ceiling windows in its entry with a spectacular view of the bay, features interactive displays and a new upstairs mural depicting past and current Ojibwe people and traditions.
Superintendent park tip: “Most people assume the Grand Portage has something to do with the fur trade, but it’s likely thousands of years old. It’s a prehistoric interstate.”
Keweenaw National Historical Park, Michigan
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Bob Berg / Lake Superior Magazine
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The park’s visitor center, opened in 2011, has displays in a historic building in Calumet.
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Dan Johnson / National Park Service
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Some ruins from the Quincy Unit of the park in Hancock. There are about 28 sites around the Keweenaw Peninsula linked to the park.
The site of the newest NPS park on Lake Superior takes in the whole of the Keweenaw Peninsula. A good start for experiencing the Keweenaw National Historical Park is its visitor center in Calumet, a town with lots to explore.
Three floors of multimedia displays and showings of informative documentaries help to set the stage for an adventure into the region’s past, especially linked to the rise and fall of copper mining.
The park, established in 1992, partners with 21 historic sites, operated by private, public or non-profit groups. Unlike a park with specific boundaries, Keweenaw helps to direct visitation to and interpretation of the myriad surviving historic sites sprinkled throughout the peninsula.
“It is a challenge sometimes because Keweenaw is different than maybe more traditional parks,” says Interim Superintendent Kathleen Harter. National parks, she adds, are “not only places of serenity and solitude, but of human ingenuity, human perseverance.”
Ingenuity and perseverance are certainly the story of Keweenaw copper and the people drawn by the valuable mineral to this region. When visitors to the peninsula see the towering hoist of the Quincy Mine in Hancock or the many historic structures around the region, “They have questions and want to know more,” Kathleen says. “That’s where the park comes in.”
The visitor center gives a base of knowledge about the region’s history, about immigration from multiple nations to the mines. It then offers itineraries for half- and full-day self-guided visits to the historic units. Some tours incorporate natural attributes, like great drives for fall foliage.
The park staff is becoming more involved in local activities, too, helping communites understand their own history. It’s a partner in programs like “Step Into History,” collaborating with the local health department. For example, a February hike around Lake Calumet featured a park ranger highlighting area history while everyone enjoyed an evening of snowshoeing. Thus the park comes full circle, linking the past to a healthy future.
Superintendent’s park tip: “At the Quincy Unit, I really enjoy the historic ruins that have been stabilized there … and enjoy the views overlooking the canal. The other is the northern unit, Calumet. Just to go and walk through downtown. You can see the history reflected in the buildings, like the church opposite our visitor center. That corner was one of my very first impressions when I came here, and I still love it.”
That sentiment is so true for our parks. It’s love at first sight … all the way through the seventh generation.
More Parks to Find
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Parks Canada
Our National Parks
Hikers take on the Coastal Hiking Trail, the only land-based way to see the interior of Pukaskwa.
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Parks Canada
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Water rushes through the White River Gorge as seen from the Coastal Hiking Trail.
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Wilderness Inquiry
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Some Voyageurs National Park visitors choose guided tours, like those through Wilderness Inquiry, and boat tours by the National Park Service.
Besides the five U.S. national parks on Lake Superior, we have a Canadian national park in Ontario and another U.S. park in our Boundary Waters neighborhood in Minnesota:
Pukaskwa National Park
Created in 1978, Pukaskwa National Park sits at the northeast “corner” of Lake Superior, 25 kilometres (16 mi.) from Marathon. It’s Ontario’s only national wilderness park, protecting 1,887 sq. km. (728 sq. mi.) showcasing boreal forest and Canadian Shield. It has 120 km. (80 mi.) of undeveloped shoreline.
Voyageurs National Park
Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota links water with land and our fur-trading past with our recreational present. The park, established in 1975, gives visitors a chance to experience the water highway of bygone times (40 percent of the park is water), plus experience the boreal forest and billions-of-years-old geology.