Islands of Hope
Once trashed, now treasured, can the Apostle Islands become an environmental symbol of hope?
Harlan Kelsey was an accomplished man - landscape architect, horticulturalist, a conservationist and consultant to the National Park Service. He would play a large role in the 1935 creation of Shenandoah National Park in Virginia and, even later, Florida’s Everglades National Park.
But, in August of 1930 it was the potential for the creation of a new national park in the upper Midwest that brought Kelsey to the Apostle Islands kindling high hopes in local boosters.
(photograph courtesy of the Kelsey Aboretum)
Kelsey was brought to the crest of Ole Olson Hill to take in the grand sweeping vista. He was given an aerial view of the islands in a plane and boated among them in the 96-foot Madeline Island yacht the Lemora.
Although his initial reactions were deemed positive, the written report of his visit published six months later would dash those high hopes like lake ice on a rocky shore. Still, the harsh verdict may have planted the seeds of one of the great comeback stories in National Park history, a story which, even today, we can turn to find a spark of hope against the dark horizons of our environmental concerns.
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