Door County 2009 Visitor Guide - (Page 14) TROLLEY TOUR AT PENINSULA STATE PARK © DAN EGGERT T D C Peninsula State Park Celebrates 100 Years oor County without Peninsula State Park. It’s tough to fathom, for the 3,776-acre oasis is home to some of the county’s most iconic imagery: Eagle Tower, Nicolet Bay, Eagle Bluff Lighthouse, Peninsula Golf Course, American Folklore Theatre, the breathtaking view from Sven’s Bluff. Each is among the most photographed and most visited attractions in Door County. This year the Park – the second-most visited state park in Wisconsin – celebrates its 100th birthday, and Peninsula’s keepers plan to make it a special one, with the centennial theme woven into activities throughout the year. The Peninsula School of Art will unveil a special work of public art in collaboration with the centennial celebration in August. Artist Daniel Engelke, a Professor of Fine Art at Purdue University, plans to install 15 temporary sculptures on the beach and anchored in the water at Tennison Bay in the Park. Each 2 to 8 feet tall sculptures, will be internally lighted by solar power in a display “dedicated to an awareness of our environment.” Engelke will conduct lectures at the site and at a corresponding exhibition at Peninsula School of Art. Installation of the exhibit will begin Aug. 11 and it will remain on display through Aug. 29. Edgewood Orchard Gallery will dedicate their fi rst exhibit of the season to art inspired by the Park, including jewelry, 14 14 D paintings, sculpture and other forms from a wide variety of artists. Among other highlights is a Park rededication slated for Wisconsin’s State Park open house weekend June 6 and 7. A commemorative stamp and postmark are in the works, as well as a centennial hiking patch for those who hike, ski, or bike 100 miles or more in the park next year. Many more activities will be solidified before summer. Door County’s five State Parks (more than any other county in Wisconsin) are an integral part of its attraction to visitors, even those who don’t clamor for its 468 campsites, a fact not lost on Park Manager Tom Blackwood. He’ll retire at the end of 2009, but not before stewarding Peninsula through its 100th year, helping to introduce yet another generation of visitors to the splendor of Door County. “So many people who now live here or own vacation homes tell me they got their start camping in the Park,” he said. “It’s kind of a magnet. And a lot of people consider it part of their good lifestyle in Northern Door.” Today, the Park unites the towns that bookend it – Ephraim and Fish Creek – serving as the centerpiece of the two communities thatMidwest Living Magazine ranked as the Best Small-town Getaway in the Midwest last year. But the importance of the Park wasn’t always so clear. When the idea of creating a State Park was broached by the Wisconsin State Parks Board in 1908, opposition to the idea was voiced by some of the community’s most influential leaders; It required the passion of landscape architect John Nolan and other visionaries to establish it. Both the Green Bay Press Gazette and Door County Advocate expressed reservations about the idea, and the Young Men’s Progressive Club of Ephraim proclaimed that the Park “would not benefit the community.” Well, they were wrong. Fortunately, Mr. Nolan saw it differently. “Discriminating people, now numbering at least 1,000 a year, have discovered its charms and become familiar with its attractions,” Nolan wrote. He predicted many more would come to experience the Park and surrounding communities, but it’s doubtful he had any idea how prophetic his words would prove to be. Nearly a century later, the Park is much more than an attraction. Placing a value on the importance of Peninsula State Park to Door County is a daunting task, for over the years it has come to mean so much to so many in terms both personal and economic. One hundred years on, Peninsula State Park is still spawning relationships between visitors and Door County’s natural splendor. – yles annhausen, r. The Official Door County Visitor Guide
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