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A President’s Day message from Friends of the Apostle Islands
Presidents of both parties have long played a major role in the Apostle Islands. Republican Calvin Coolidge visited the islands in 1928, along with First Lady Grace Coolidge and their son John. The presidential family toured the islands on the Madeline Island yacht the Nellwood stopping on Devils Island for a tour of the lighthouse (he even signed the guest register), and to enjoy a meal of locally caught and prepared lake trout. To this day, Coolidge remains the only sitting U.S. president to actually set foot in the Apostle Islands.
Democrat John F. Kennedy flew over the islands on September 24,1963, witnessing sailboats in full-sail splendor weaving among the islands. He also gave a speech in Ashland as a part of his nationwide Conservation Tour organized by Senator Gaylord Nelson, a speech in which he claimed that “any day not spent trying to protect these islands is a day wasted.”
It would, however, fall to Republican Richard M. Nixon on September 26, 1970, to sign Public Law 91-424, a bill “To provide for the establishment of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in the State of Wisconsin.”
Republican Ronald Reagan would later sign the 1986 bill expanding the lakeshore to include Long Island, a vital nesting habitat for the endangered piping plover, and fellow Republican George W. Bush put his signature on a December 8, 2004 bill designating nearly 80 percent of the Islands as the Gaylord A. Nelson Wilderness Area.
As we recognize President’s Day 2025, our National Parks have been much in the news. Recently, the Department of Interior announced the firings of some 1,000 National Park Service employees, cuts that have hit home here at the Apostle Islands as well. A nationwide halt to seasonal hirings was first announced, then scaled back somewhat to allow some hirings with certain parameters and conditions that are still being sorted through. Each year the NPS hires between 7,000 and 9,000 seasonal employees nationwide (close to two dozen here in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore). These are the smiling faces you see at entry stations and ranger talks, wildflower hikes, and when picking up your camping permit. It is the ranger who asks your kids to raise their right hand and be sworn in as Junior Rangers.
But it is also often the NPS personnel involved in search and rescue when you get lost, in maintaining clean and safe campgrounds and visitor centers, and ensuring clean drinking water. It is the skilled carpenters and electricians that shore up historic lighthouses, and boat operators ferrying staff and crews between remote island outposts. And much more.
Hopefully, the coming weeks and months will lend more clarity to park staffing issues and the fate of our parks for this coming summer season. But on this President’s Day 2025, it is worth remembering that our parks are the envy of the world. In their 153-year history, they have endured more than their share of ups and downs, surviving a Great Depression, World Wars, social and cultural unrest, and almost constant change.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Wallace Stegner once wrote that our “national parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.” With your continued support of those parks through organizations such as Friends of the Apostle Islands, that “best idea” will continue to endure, continue to shine brightly, and always reflect what is best about our country, our landscapes, and ourselves.
Jeff & Jill Rennicke, Co-Executive Directors
Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
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