In August, 2023, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, in partnership with Red Cliff Band of Lake...
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Recent Articles
Shop the Friends December sale for holiday gifts
Shop our December sale! Enjoy the discount and order before December 15th for the best chance of...
How you can support the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore on Giving Tuesday 2023
Giving Tuesday was created in 2012 as a simple idea: a day that encourages people to do good....
NPS craftsman Dave Brunsvold hangs up his tool belt
The rich history of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore lives on through the historic buildings...
Northern lights celebrated during 6th annual Aurora Summit at Red Cliff
The weekend of November 3-5th saw one of North America’s largest displays of aurora borealis...
You did it! Access for All campaign goal reached for Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
One more stroke of the paddle and the bow touches the shore. You did it. The long journey is...
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Features
Tongues in trees: Celebrating National Poetry Month
In Act 1, Scene 2 of his famous play “As You Like It” William Shakespeare wrote “And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.” Shakespeare never visited Lake Superior or the Apostle Islands, but if he had, he would have certainly found “good in everything” in these islands as well as heard the poetry in this place. The summer wind strumming the waves, the slow repeating verse of the surf, birdsong in the bogs at sunrise. There is a beauty in these islands that speaks to the poet’s soul, and...
A Time Capsule Letter to the Future Stewards of the Apostle Islands
What would you say to the future? Our 50th anniversary celebration of the creation of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore is over. The speeches have been given, the cupcakes eaten, the candles blown out. But the legacy of all we have accomplished in the park, our honoring of the past and excitement about the future, will live on in a kind of “time capsule” being submitted to the National Park Service commemorating this anniversary year. It will include pamphlets and pins, photographs and invitations and the texts of speeches given. It will include the proclamation issued in honor of the...
Explore the Top 10 Friends website stories of 2021
DRUMROLL PLEASE! It has been a big year in the Apostle Islands -- from fun and fanfare to tragedy averted. During this last week of the year,, Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore is counting down its TOP TEN Island stories of 2021. In sharing these stories, we thank you, our readers and supporters, for your support and we wish you an adventure-filled 2022 in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. 10 HERE WE GO: Weather stories always resonate with Island Lovers, so the #10 most popular story of the year goes to the tall birch trees dancing in the big gale. 9 At #9 on our...
Park Information
National Lakeshore delivers record-setting boost to northern Wisconsin economy
The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore provides unmatched natural beauty, rich cultural history and amazing adventures, but that's not all. The park is an economic engine, generating nearly $64 million for the economies of gateway communities along the south shore of Lake Superior in 2021.Park Headquarters - Bob Jauch photoThe National Park Service released a report in August on the economic impact of national parks on their surrounding communities. The report says 291,000 people visited the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in 2021. They spent money on places to stay, food to eat, fuel and...
Dave Cooper awarded John L. Cotter Award for Excellence in NPS Archeology
(NPS News Release) Join us in congratulating David J. Cooper, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore Archeologist and Cultural Resource Manager, in being awarded the John L. Cotter Award for Excellence in NPS Archeology for Professional Achievement. “Dave Cooper’s work shows the impact one person can have not only within a park, but across a whole landscape,” said Apostle Islands National Lakeshore Superintendent Lynne Dominy. “Dave has spent his lifetime protecting the historical and cultural resources on and around Lake Superior. From portages to fish camps to lighthouses and shipwrecks, Dave...
Attention Paddlers and Boaters: The Buoys are Back!
“The lake is the boss” and “know before you go” are literally words to live by when kayaking in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Before your next paddling or boating adventure, it pays to learn as much as you can about the weather forecast and wave conditions. Lake Superior can be glass-calm in one instant and a short time later you might face three-foot waves from a fast-moving storm. The islands themselves influence wind and wave patterns every day and the cold water presents and ever-present risk of hypothermia. That’s why proper gear, training and forecast knowledge are so...
History
NPS craftsman Dave Brunsvold hangs up his tool belt
The rich history of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore lives on through the historic buildings and artifacts you'll discover throughout the park. The man you are about to meet is one of the talented craftspeople dedicated to restoring, preserving and presenting these treasures to teach and inspire generations of park visitors. Dave Brunsvold devoted 23 years to that effort, before transitioning into retirement on October 19, 2023. Friends board member Neil Howk sat down Dave, saying it's important to give him a tiny bit of the recognition he deserves for the marvelous work that he...
Marigolds: A simple tribute to a different era in the Apostle Islands
If you are ever lucky enough to be invited to sit on the deck at photographer Mark Weller’s home, you may notice a small planting of marigolds. Flowers on a deck are nothing unusual and you may not give the potted flowers a second thought. But look again. These flowers have more than beautiful blossoms: they have a story.“I am a lighthouse man,” Mark Weller says. “Over the past decade, I and a team of talented photographers have traveled to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore to photograph the Milky Way behind some of the park’s famous lighthouses. We sell the images to support the...
Restoration of historic dock completed at Little Sand Bay
The fabled gales of November couldn't stop reconstruction of the historic Hokenson Brothers Fishery dock at Little Sand Bay in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Battered by storms for decades, the dock and related buildings are listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places and are the focus of a $1.4 million preservation and restoration effort by the National Park Service.This summer, construction crews from Pearl Beach Construction Company of Michigan used heavy equipment and a barge to rebuild the dock as historically accurately as possible, using wooden pilings and...
People
NPS craftsman Dave Brunsvold hangs up his tool belt
The rich history of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore lives on through the historic buildings and artifacts you'll discover throughout the park. The man you are about to meet is one of the talented craftspeople dedicated to restoring, preserving and presenting these treasures to teach and inspire generations of park visitors. Dave Brunsvold devoted 23 years to that effort, before transitioning into retirement on October 19, 2023. Friends board member Neil Howk sat down Dave, saying it's important to give him a tiny bit of the recognition he deserves for the marvelous work that he...
Meet the new Apostle Islands National Lakeshore division chief: Lucas Westcott
It takes a strong team to protect the natural and cultural resources of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, while enhancing the experience for more than a quarter-million people who visit the park every year. With that in mind, Friends board member Neil Howk sat down with the park's new Director of Communications and Education, Lucas Westcott. They talked about the skills and experience Westcott brings to the park, his first impressions about what makes the Apostle Islands a special place and about the important work that's ahead.Neil: Where are you from Lucas?Lucas: Originally, I’m from...
New Ojibwe educator hired for Apostle Islands National Lakeshore (Wenabozho ominisan)
Bayfield, WI – (National Park Service news release) Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, in partnership with Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, announce Peyton Martinson as the newly appointed park ranger cultural educator for Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. “In her new role, Peyton will work with the park’s visitor service and education team to enhance public and staff understanding of Ojibwe culture and help integrate Ojibwe language, traditional knowledge, and Ojibwe perspectives into park operations,” said Apostle Islands National Lakeshore Superintendent Lynne Dominy. “She...
Science
Prescribed cultural burn planned for Stockton Island tombolo this fall, weather permitting
BAYFIELD, WISCONSIN (National Park Service News Release) –The National Park Service, in collaboration with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and Tribal partners, is planning a 33-acre prescribed fire on Stockton Island (Wiisaakodewan-minis) between September 13 and October 15, if weather conditions permit. This prescribed fire will be a cultural burn; objectives include restoring globally imperiled pine barrens habitat with an emphasis on increasing blueberry (miin) production. Cultural burns take Indigenous Knowledge, which is a deep knowledge of a place that has been painstakingly...
Connecting people and the Apostle Islands to Costa Rican parks
10 Bayfield area volunteers, including Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore board members Neil Howk and Mark Peterson, recently left snowy Wisconsin to complete two weeks of conservation work on Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula, under an agreement between Lake Superior’s national parks and Costa Rica’s National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC).The parks are linked by migratory birds that winter in Costa Rica and breed in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and other parks around Lake Superior. The agreement signed in 2013 encourages both institutions to work for the benefit of...
“Discover the night” in the Apostle Islands during International Dark Sky Week
30 miles offshore, Devils Island and Outer Island offer some incredible views of the Milky Way set in a field of innumerable stars. And if you’re very fortunate, you'll witness the spectacular northern lights dancing in some of the darkest skies in Wisconsin. The featured photo above captures the northern lights as seen from the top of the Outer Island lighthouse. In fact, most of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore offers great night sky viewing; night sky lovers, stargazers and photographers want to protect those views for generations to come.Milky Way over Stockton Island - Jon...
