National Parks: Wisconsin | Program |

Wisconsin just look at all that natural beauty from our sparkling waters and fortress-like forest to our peaceful valleys and marshes teeming with life Wisconsin's wild outdoors is inviting and the same can be said of our state's poor jewels in the National Park System as you're about to see as we go exploring national parks Wisconsin this piece of property holds the key to our national park system Wisconsin's own John Muir turned that key and turned his vision into reality he grew up right here on Mountain Lake Farm in Marquette County it's a place where Muir says he first dreamed of a plan for national parks the birthplace of an idea the cradle of our National Park System hello I'm Dan small of Milwaukee Public Television and I'm patty Loew of Wisconsin Public Television John Muir's environmental endeavours earned him the title father of our national parks today Mears beautiful idea is called the National Park System it includes nearly 400 natural recreational and historic sites John Muir's Wisconsin has four glorious contributions we'll start with the st. Croix National Scenic Riverway a 252 mile long natural corridor that rises in the wilds of Wisconsin's North Woods and eventually forms the Wisconsin Minnesota border two rivers make up the Scenic Riverway the st. Croix and the namma coggan will focus on the wilder of the two than a mccoggins it's an unbelievably wonderful mystical magical place than a McKagan River the fishings just second to none I mean it's we're blessed to live in this area Wisconsin is the most beautiful state I've ever seen it's it's just gorgeous I love all the trees the water it's just so alive that it's just very pleasant being here the namma coggan river flows for a hundred miles through northern Wisconsin a century ago the river carried millions of logs downstream too busy sawmills to make the lumber that built the cities of the Midwest today as part of the st. Croix National Scenic Riverway the namma coggan is preserved as a natural and recreational corridor I don't want to make the people watching this show jealous however there is a chance that I have the greatest job out there Brandon Thwaites is an interpretive Ranger for the National Park Service her beat is the namma coggan River her vehicle a kayak my job as an interpreter is to connect people to the river so if they have a question about the turtles or the history of the river or the cultural history the natural resources we try to to give them more information and to help connect them to why this particular resource is so incredibly important I will have so many people tell me I've been coming here since I was a kid I brought my kids and we've been this is our 30th year of taking our annual trip on the river or I've drive up from Iowa every single year with my buddy here and we've been on this river it's unbelievable how many we'll come back to this river year after a year because something about it just really connects with people when I was young I remember you know being on the river and you would rarely see any traffic at all even you know canoes or never inner-tubes it was kind of you had it all to yourself and even 11 years ago when we came back there was a lot less traffic it's being enjoyed a lot more in different ways Wendy Williamson grew up on the namma coggan today she makes her living on the river and it's obvious she cares deeply about it my husband Larry and I own the Hayward fly-fishing company and we have been guiding on these rivers for 11 years now I guess the thing that I would like more than anything would be for there to be the proper respect for the river that it is not a water park that there are lots of things that live here that were here way before we started doing this whether it's you know the insect life that the fish themselves turtles it's just incredible the wildlife that is here and for us to come into their world and disturb it I think we need to be more conscious of that and up the respect for this river that's how bad to cast efficiently fishing is is a big deal on the river but the most popular is canoeing kayaking and tubing for sure and you can do a short stretch that might take you an hour and you can go out for five six days if you want a place like the Grand Canyon might be like a once-in-a-lifetime encounter that really affects you deeply but it might be once in a lifetime you know McKagan is more like your old friend that yeah you just can't get enough of and you can't quite put your finger on why but that person just becomes part of the fabric of your life and that happens with this river we're from Olathe Kansas burb on the south side of Kansas City and we enjoy traveling around and doing campground host team we decided come up here it's been a summer and the park department was willing to allow us to do that one of the things that's really impressed me about the whole situation here at the st. croix National Scenic Riverway is the employees of the park Department every single employee whether you're talking about the law enforcement Ranger the interpretive Rangers the maintenance people no matter who it is their primary objective is to ensure that the visitors get the most out of their visit here and it's it's rewarding to see that I realized the importance of preserving what we have here and this one especially because it is it's a park and it's wild and scenic and it's been designated as such and I would just hope that it's it's going to be taken care of I spent a lot of time thinking about this a lot of time thinking why is the Namek hagen versus other rivers part of the National Park System and you know and time and time again when I talk to visitors it's clear but it's not something I can say to you it's because and this is true the Namek on the st. Croix have an incredibly healthy population of mussels or because the rivers are fairly clean it's not something simple like that it's more the way it makes people feel and it's more just how connected they are and I think that when it was first established you know it really a lot of it was from the ground up people cared the cool waters here inspired John Muir this farm is named Fountain Lake after the numerous Springs that rise in the sedge meadow and feed the lake another one of the National Park areas is all waterfront Lake Superior is home to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore a collection of islands boasting windswept beaches and rocky cliffs it's where the water meets land and sky and that's not lost on the people who first called Wisconsin home the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore includes a collection of twenty-one tree covered islands sculpted by wind and waves the islands are scattered like stepping stones in Lake Superior off Wisconsin's North Shore Damon ponic is a national park ranger here you know one of the coolest things about this job is getting to meet different people from across the world really what we want to do is to have them bring this place into their heart and in their minds the Apostle Islands hold a special place in ponics heart and mind he's a member of the Ojibwe nation the most recent tribe to call these islands their home there has been a native folks living in this area for as far as we know at least 10,000 years tribal legends say the Ojibwe traveled here from the east because of a prophecy what we're told is that when people got here they were expecting this they were looking for this the islands offer a wealth of unique natural features to attract both past and present day visitors for example Stockton Island has a narrow land bridge called a tombolo the reefs to actually be two islands about 5,000 years ago and wave action and the wind and all the erosion created this kind of bridge from an island to an island Stockton Island also boasts what are known as singing sands the rounded shape of the individual grains make a strangely melodic sound ponic says he enjoys working here because of the natural beauty of this place but also because the goals of the National Park Service harmonized well with his Native American beliefs and values the values of considering these trees are considering the animals or the birds or everything that lives here kind of a part of it and not just like something that we manage but actually something that we're working with ponic is a cultural educator for the park one place where he teaches Native American culture is at the Apostle Islands school held on Stockton Island the school pairs students from Northland college with middle school students for two and a half days of camping and outdoor education this group is from Westfield some 275 miles to the south in their first lesson panic teaches them some Ojibwe names for animals found on the islands legitimate from now on legit amol no one the little squirrel that follows us around and picks up all our little food scraps the rest of the lessons in these outdoor classrooms cover a range of topics and offer insights into the islands native-american past this Chi is part of that one right there - Rhetta Nosa using walk panic wants to create an overall experience at the island school that reflects Native American culture so commuting the sense of community creating this idea of values creating the sense of stewardship for future generations the sense of stewardship comes into play when ponic tells the students about the largest animal on the island I tell them that they have a wonderful opportunity to camp in an area where there are lots of bear and really coming from that attitude of respect and coming from that idea that their their this is their home and we are visitors after two and a half days spent exploring the forested trails and sandy beaches of Stockton Island ponic hopes the students carry home lessons that will last a lifetime and when the sound of students fades away panic takes time to reflect on his connection to the people who lived here long ago what I really like to do is to sit there and think about those folks back then and realize that when they're sitting on the beach and when we're sitting on the beach looking out at the lake and the way is crashing we're seeing the same thing Native American influence can be found all around Wisconsin's national park areas archaeologists found Native American artifacts right here on the former muir property and near himself wrote about two possible Indian burial mounds here as for the muir family themselves well their traces of time on the land have all but disappeared in fact not one of the original buildings constructed by the MIR family is standing today not even mears boyhood home but this private residence is built on the exact foundation and this property is classified as a National Historic Landmark some of the original silver maple trees planted by the mirrors are still here the homeowners are helping to restore the property to its natural state and share the same view John Muir wrote about his preservationist efforts began in his 20s when he tried several times but failed to purchase and preserve a 40 acre parcel of sedge meadow here at fountain lake farm the panoramic view was eventually preserved and today it closely mimics the historic accounts as seen in this sketch John Muir drafted from the ridge top overlooking the lake more than 150 years ago NORs idea of buying and preserving the land is still evolving today as Wisconsin moves to purchase more land for the Ice Age National Scenic Trail 10,000 years ago this land and much of North America was buried under a huge glacier the Ice Age National Scenic Trail traverses the glaciers edge and just so happens to run right through the muir property there are only eight national scenic trails in the country and this is the only one that celebrates glaciers the Ice Age National Scenic Trail winds for some 1,200 miles across Wisconsin hiker Tim mulsanne of Lodi explains what that crazy kind of a you and line shape represents is the farthest advance of a continental glacier that only receded about 10,000 years ago what was left after the last glacier retreated is a geological Bonanza Wisconsin is one of the best places in the world to view the effects of glaciers on a landscape it's the mission of the Ice Age Trail to showcase that amazing natural story so I just wanted to explore Wisconsin and I can't think of a better way to do it than with the Ice Age Trail I didn't expect to fall in love and still be involved with it 17 years later but so it goes Malzone hiked the whole trail some 18 years ago but understand that the trail is not completely finished the ultimate goal is to have 1200 miles of uninterrupted scenic trail so far they've finished about 600 in those places where the trail is not finished they often routed along local roads the nonprofit ice age park and trail foundation hopes to replace those road segments with real trail to that end there always acquiring new land and building new trail to get to that 1200 mile goal which is where Malzahn comes in it's pretty good his walkabout has become a kind of professional Visionquest hiker malson is now one of the Foundation's five paid staffers his primary job is designing new trail we caught up with him on two very different places on the trail this newly completed section in the Timberland wilderness in Lincoln County and here in the heart of winter in the city of Baraboo where he is mid design marking making decisions tons of decisions about where a new chunk of trail will go a rule of thumb is 100 hours of trail layout design time for a mile of trail the goal is to get hikers looking at glacial landforms like this one a cattle lake in Kettle Moraine State Park to keep them looking at the story of glaciers in our state and not at their feet my introduction to the Ice Age Trail was as a hiker so I'm listening to my feet in terms of how I'm moving through the landscape am i tripping over rocks it's how the feet feel as you move great trail is not about the shortest distance between two points it's about an experience and curves are welcome undulation and meander those are our key terms that help to provide variety a sense of playfulness surprise mystery to a trail alignment and that's our movement through the landscapes they want to remind the hiker that we too have been part of this landscape consider this bridge designed and built by Malzahn and volunteers it's on the Timberland Wilderness section in Lincoln County what we see is a former narrow gauge railroad bed that was used around the turn of the century to extract timber from this part of the North Woods so if you can imagine teams of horses and men creating first this rail bed through this environment that effort was mind-boggling this beautiful handcrafted bridge celebrates that story the adds a little bit more sizzle to it nearly 20 years after he first travelled this trail Malden is still leaving his imprint on Wisconsin's Ice Age Trail it's an absolute gem it's a treasure and it gives back to me more than I think what I can ever give back to it so I hope to be involved in the ice a trail for another 17 or 27 years however long we've got left to watch when the radical idea of an ice age trail was first proposed the Park Service loved it but then politics intervenes and a park hundreds of miles long was deemed too hard to manage but the idea kept moving forward and today volunteers carry the heavy burden of making the trail a treasure the Ice Age Trail is a work in progress and they're always eager for volunteers to join them constructing new trail it's a great way to see Wisconsin and leave a legacy the same is true on the North Country National Scenic Trail this trail allows hikers to experience a variety of northern landscapes across seven states thanks again to the hard work of many volunteers when completed the north country trail will span 4,600 miles from the Adirondack Mountains of New York to the Missouri River in North Dakota the greatest percentage of completed trail lies in Wisconsin here too you'll find the oldest segment a path used by Wisconsin's earliest inhabitants dating back 10,000 years or more we have more miles on the ground now than the Appalachian Trail is long and at least that many motels more to go about half the trail is completed but it will take a lot more work and the acquisition of more land and easements to connect the finished segments which cross a variety of different habitat types bill Menke and a crew of volunteers built this section of boardwalk that allows visitors to hike a portion of the trail that crosses the otherwise inaccessible Brule bog this boardwalk is really as a special project and it was a very fun project because of its massive nature and it's just fun when you can build something like a structure like a bridge or a boardwalk it's a little more satisfying for some reason than digging tread in the dirt and moving dirt and boulders all day long I think it's a really neat structure because it gets people out here into this environment that people can't typically see you know all the Spagna mosses and the other kinds of mosses and ferns and and delicate plants that are here one of the things that makes the North Country National Scenic Trail special is that it traverses through a wide diversity of environments and places rather than following a particular geographic feature another unusual environment crossed by the trail is a Pine Barrens in the douglas county wildlife area so out here hikers are are seeing an entirely different set of plants and animals and birds at some times of the year when you come through here you see various kinds of prairie flowers in bloom right now we have some prairie roses and some blooming so you see a variety of wildflowers here that you don't see elsewhere liberal st. Croix portage is the one of the traditional routes between the Mississippi watershed and the Lake Superior Great Lakes watershed when you see the the deeply rutted area on the trail this is where the native people and the voyagers after them climbed up the steep Bluff of the trail carrying canoes and voyager trade goods and and packs the portage trail is one of the places where you can see a public travel route in its natural state as it was historically in wisconsin there is really not any other place that i can think of in the state where you can see a trail as old as this the north country trail really is only coming into existence because of the commitment of these partners state agencies local agencies and especially the volunteers the volunteers do it all I and my staff amount to four and a half people so obviously we don't build and maintain the trail linhu has a subscription to a magazine and Outdoor Magazine saw something about the north country trail and we just we pursued it a little further and found that there was a local chapter and we went to a meeting and got involved that way and we've been involved with the with the organization ever since I like hiking in places where you would not be able to be if it weren't for the trail the north country trail through Wisconsin just gives you so much variety it's just and we've hiked a lot of these trails over and over again and we never get tired of it it's just wonderful to be outside it's something that I can be involved with and try to leave a legacy for future generations and my grandchildren and so the legacy of the trail lives on as it's passed from one generation to the next John Muir referred to the national parks as a place for rest inspiration and prayers in 1903 he convinced President Theodore Roosevelt of that on an overnight camping trip and the National Park Service was born Muir made conservation a popular cause in the United States and changed the thinking of people around the world the Wisconsin frontier experience lit his passion for nature and sparked his revolutionary conservation ethic something to remember the next time you hike dive or paddle into one of Wisconsin's national park areas you

Channel: Milwaukee PBS

Views: 24,904

Rating: 4.8421054 out of 5

Keywords: National Parks: Wisconsin, national park system, Milwaukee, WMVT, WMVS, public television, Patty Loew, Television, MPTV, WPT, Public, Dan Small, Ice Age National Scenic Trail

Id: tGuTdYncFVo

Length: 27min 45sec (1665 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 01 2010