Incoming Resource Stewardship Director Jo Holt says the vastness of Lake Superior, the beauty of the Apostle Islands and the fact that it’s a sacred place drew her to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. She comes to the park from Keweenaw National Historical Park in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Friends of the Apostle Islands board member Neil Howk sat down with Jo to learn about her passions, her background and what she hopes to bring to the park.

Neil: Where are you from?
Jo: I most recently moved here from Michigan. I worked at Keweenaw National Historical Park. But I am a westerner. My home state is Montana. And I grew up in Alberta. I have an American father and a Canadian mother. So, I grew up in Montana and Alberta.

Neil: Where did you live in Montana?
Jo: The family is from a small town in the mountains called Plains, but by the time my dad was in high school everybody was in Billings. I think of Alberta as home. I worked in Jasper National Park in grad school, not for the park but as a student researcher. I have fond memories of Jasper.

Neil: Where did you go to school?
Jo: I went to the University of Alberta, which is in Edmonton. That’s where I was living. My dad was a professor at the University. I did an undergraduate degree in history and a master’s degree in history. At the time when I was in grad school, environmental history was making waves in the history field. It was a pretty new field at the time. But someone handed me a copy of William Cronon’s “Nature’s Metropolis” and it transformed my understanding of history as a method to really look at the human relationship with the environment.

So, I did my master’s thesis on the construction of wilderness in Glacier National Park. And of course, he (Bill Cronon) did so much work here in the Apostles…

Neil: He used to live right across the street (from park HQ). So, I guess history must be your area of expertise?
Jo: Yeah, it’s my area of education and training. One of the things I valued most about my grad school was being involved in a research project In Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies. It was about, broadly speaking, the human history and human impacts to a river valley system in the park. The principal investigator on the project brought together a team of people. There was an ecologist, a forest ecologist, a paleobotanist, an archeologist, an anthropologist, and a historian (me) to all work together in figuring out “what had people done in this place over time?” all with the goal of figuring out how do we restore these environments to…

Neil: To when?
Jo: Exactly. That was the question. What are we restoring this to? That particular part of the park was really interesting because there were two competing railroads that built rail lines through this pretty narrow valley that had all sorts of impacts on waterways and wetlands. There was also homesteading, and the park overlay with park infrastructure. It was a really interesting project. How far do you peel back the different things all the people did there? That was the big philosophical question there. It was really great to work with such an interdisciplinary team to say what happened here. Looking at all sorts of different data sources to work that out.

Neil: So, you worked at Keweenaw National Historical Park have you worked at any other parks?
Jo: I worked for almost two years for the Northeast Regional Office of the National Park Service. I worked with historic preservation and partnerships. I think it was called history and preservation assistance. I was working with a team of historians to provide history assistance to the parks in the North Atlantic Appalachian zone. My job was specifically coordinating the regional National Register of Historic Places program. So, I’d be working with parks primarily on national register documentation, and a little bit of national historic landmark work. But then also helping parks scope out and manage historic resource studies, administrative histories, special history studies, any history need they had. That was neat because I got to work with parks from Acadia to Fort Stanwix, Richmond National Battlefield, Gettysburg…all sorts of different parks. I loved that job because it really allowed me to get a lot more skills working with national register documentation, but then also being able to assist all sorts of different parks with history projects. One of the things that I liked about that was being a different kind of historian helping parks understand that history goes way back. You don’t start a historic resource study when the first Europeans show up. You start it earlier than that. Being able to work with parks identifying indigenous scholars, in some cases African American scholars, who would bring new perspectives and new insights into park history. I was really proud of doing some of that work.

Neil: So that was your entrance to the NPS?
Jo: No. That was at Keweenaw. I got hired there to do oral history and that turned into a permanent historian job there. I did history and compliance, running the compliance program.

Neil: You’ve mentioned a couple projects that you worked on, are there any particular projects that stand out as a highlight of what you’ve done with the park service?
Jo: Oh, there’s a lot. I’ve been with the park service now for 23 years. How can that be?

One of the projects was at the Harriet Tubman site. We were doing National Register documentation for that particular site. What is interesting about where history and the national register criteria align, or overlap, I’m not sure what the right word is, but the dark sky was so important for Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad. And figuring out the significance of maintaining dark skies, from a historical perspective, at a unit there on the east coast with light pollution. That is a management issue for the park because it is so significant for that spot, that element of history. How do we recognize that? How do we maintain that? How do we preserve that dark sky there? I loved working on that project. I’m going to have to follow that to see how the park over time works to recognize that or implement that.

At Keweenaw there were a lot of different things going on. Probably the development of the park’s first permanent visitor center would be a highlight.

Neil: That is a very cool visitor center.
Jo: Thanks! It was a good interdisciplinary effort. I was involved in the compliance side, the building rehab, and the development of exhibits. That’s the kind of project that you look back on and go, “yeah, we did pretty good!” But then also, “well we forgot about this, and we didn’t do that”… So, in hindsight, a lot of lessons learned, as with all good projects, I guess.

Neil: What attracted you to come to the Apostle Islands?
Jo: (laughter) What can you say about the Apostle Islands, right? It’s such a beautiful and important part of the world. I think when I saw the job announcement, I wasn’t even going to apply because I thought , “wow, that’s a tall order to step into a park like this and a position like this.” But then someone encouraged me to do it and I thought, OK, I’ll try. I am so grateful. I told Lynne (Superintendent Lynne Dominy), I’m going to email her every day thanking her for hiring me.
It’s a combination of this being a sacred place, the beauty of the islands, the fact that it’s on the Great Lakes, Lake Superior specifically. Being from the west and being a mountain person, I don’t think you ever get over what an amazing place Lake Superior is…all the water. So that’s a good part of it.

I think too, one of the other appeals was the people. The park has a great reputation. So, wanting to be part of this team was a really powerful draw.

Neil: What is your title here?
Jo: I think it is Interdisciplinary Resource Stewardship Director. I’ve seen it in multiple variations. Julie Van Stappen, who retired from this job, was Resource Stewardship Director. For me, Resources Program Manager kind of makes sense. I think on the mailbox it says Resources Program Manager, so let’s go with the mailbox.

Neil: I know the job entails a lot, but what are some of the highlights of what you do?
Jo: You mean my elevator pitch? Well, how I think about it is I get to lead a pretty crack team of resource professionals. I work with a biologist, a biological technician, a cultural resource manager, and an archeological technician to help preserve all of the islands’ wonderful resources. That barely even covers it because there’s a universe of things out there that we are responsible for. Some days I feel the weight of that…a lot. We’ve got endangered species that we monitor. Like the piping plovers, we want to nurture that. We’ve got bats, we’ve got all sorts of different natural resources that are part of the story here. And then on top of that…you know my background is in cultural resources…we’ve got such a special human history here. Evidence of that not just in our archeological sites and all the way up through historical structures, but almost more importantly through story and just the knowledge of people being here for thousands of years. There’s a lot to navigate through all that. We’re a pretty busy shop.

Neil: Well, you’ve been here a few months. What’s your favorite thing that you’ve worked on so far?
Jo: How much time do you have? First, I’ll say that my head is still spinning. I got here at the end of April, right when the field season was kicking off. For me, getting out into a boat, seeing as many islands as I could, going along when the staff was starting their field projects, and being with them through the summer to see the projects unfold. There is a huge learning curve here to get a handle on all of that. As I’m starting to get my feet under me as the fall progresses, I told someone, “I’m just trying to figure out what happened!”

So, getting out on the water, exploring the park, meeting everybody. Meeting the park staff and meeting the volunteers who all help make this place run has been exciting. I will say that going through MOCC (motorboat operator certification course) and learning boat operations has been simultaneously terrifying and exhilarating. So that’s been a lot of fun and I look forward to getting back onto the water next year.

Neil: Tell me about your family
Jo: We live in Ashland. My husband is a paramedic. He actually goes back to Michigan to work. He works for Mercy Ambulance in Houghton and has worked there for a number of years. He’s one of the senior medics there. As everyone will tell you, it is an in-demand kind of job. His boss does not want to lose him so they have been accommodating his schedule so he can work a few shifts and then return to Wisconsin. So that’s what we are looking at this year.

We have a dog. Duncan. He’s our guy. He’s a mutt. We adopted him from a shelter in Green Bay. But that’s it. We’re a small family unit. Ryan’s family is in the U.P., but all my family are back west.

Neil: It’s nice to have an excuse to go west.
Jo: Absolutely. We were already pretty familiar with US 2. It’s nice that we are three hours closer than we were in Michigan.

Neil: What are some of your hobbies?
Jo: As with most historians, my primary hobby is reading. It goes with the territory. But, I love cross country skiing and snowshoeing… winter sports. I love biking. I used to be a runner…trying to get back into that. That’s my goal for the winter is to get back into that. I love running outside in the winter.

Neil: Good for you!
Jo: When you live in this part of the world it is so important to get out in the winter. Otherwise, you get cabin fever. Luckily, I love the cold, and I learned how to layer for winter runs. The colder it is, the happier I am.

Neil: Great. I think you’ll love it here. Thanks for your time.