What is the coolest thing you did in Apostle Islands National Lakeshore (APIS) as part of your job?

Neil: Learning to operate park boats on Lake Superior, assisting the crew that photographed the park film 2000-2002, living in park housing on the islands (Stockton, Raspberry, Outer).

Forrest: Riding on the PELICAN (a former WWII era landing craft) to Stockton Island.

Neil on board the NPS Merlin

What is the most fun experience you had in the park? 

Neil: Demonstrating “singing sand” on Julian Bay beach to visitors, teachers, and new park staff; working with high school students to winterize the Raspberry Lighthouse; serving as a chaperone for my children during their “Island School” experiences; singing “Smokey the Bear” at Stockton Island campfire programs; flying over the park to assess damage from a windstorm in 2016.

Forrest: Being the overnight maintenance worker on Stockton Island responsible for hiking 5 miles a day and clearing brush from the trail network on the island. 

Neil kneeling on the singing sands at Julian Bay

Aerial view of downed trees around the Michigan Island light station

Please share a memorable experience you had in the park. 

Neil and Forrest:  Camping at the Outer Island sandspit with my wife and two-year-old son (Forrest) to conduct a migratory bird survey, walking with my son to open the Stockton Island visitor center as an emergency shelter on a stormy night and encountering a bear on the trail between the ranger cabin and the visitor center.

Neil: skiing to the Oak Island sandspit to winter camp with friends, shooting two deer during efforts to cull the herd on Sand Island.

Forrest at age 2 on the Outer Island sandspit

Black bear at the amphitheater near the ranger quarters on Stockton Island

The doe that Neil shot to reduce the deer population on Sand Island

What is the most amazing thing you saw in the park? 

Forrest:  Watching sunrise at the Outer Island lighthouse. 

Neil: Boating from Stockton Island to Roy’s Point on a nearly calm evening and watching the last rays of sunset reflect off the oily surface of the lake when it looks like polished metal, a bear swimming from the mainland to Oak Island, piping plovers on Long Island feigning a broken wing to lure us away from their chicks, watching thousands of people walk across the frozen lake to view the ice formations at the mainland sea caves in 2014. 

Sunset reflected on the lake near Hermit Island

Black bear swimming to Oak Island

Forrest oversees the banding of plover chicks on Long Island

Please share an accomplishment from your tenure at APIS that gives you pride. 

Neil: Researching, planning, designing, fabricating, and installing interpretive exhibits at the Michigan Island Light and the visitor center at Little Sand Bay. 

Forrest: Carrying and installing bear boxes at numerous backcountry campsites in the park.  Carrying the 300 lb. boxes for miles was the most strenuous task I was asked to perform. 

Neil and one of the new exhibits at Little Sand Bay

One of the bear lockers that Forrest carried to a campsite on Rocky Island

A white throated sparrow

The Pelican at Stockton Island to pump out the outhouses in the campground

NPS Pelican

What, if any, ’something’ from your time at APIS was an impetus for your chosen career or life path?

Neil: Getting hired as a full-time ranger by Kayci Cook after fourteen years as a seasonal interpreter.

If you could return to just one place in APIS, where would you go? Why?

Neil: I’d like to experience a storm lashing the cliffs near the Devils Island lighthouse. I’ve seen the beautiful sea caves when conditions are calm, but I’d also love to feel the ground shake and hear the thunder of large waves exploding into the caves during a gale.

Forrest: The sandspit at the south end of Outer Island.  I camped there for the first time when I was two years old.  I loved stopping there to clean the outhouse because it had the best view of any latrine in the park.  Just prop the door open and its only you and Lake Superior for as far as the eye can see. 

Waves crashing into the Devils Island cliffs

The old outhouse on the Outer Island sandspit

Sunrise at Outer Island

We want to thank Neil and Forrest Howk for their entries in our 50th Anniversary Lakeshore Logbook.

About the series, Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore Executive Director Jeff Rennicke says, “Sometimes, it is tempting to think of parks only as postcard scenery, or adventurous memories. This series produced Neil Howk has reminded us that beyond all of that, parks are also about people – the people who create them, the people who visit them, and, in particular, the people who take care of them, for all of us. Thank you Neil, for an important reminder of the faces behind the places.”

You can read every entry in the Lakeshore Logbook — all 35 of them — here. We hope you’ve enjoyed the adventure.