Wisconsin’s Interstate Park offers water and wonder despite funding woes

The basalt bluffs of Interstate Park are webbed with footpaths worn smooth by countless feet. The billion-year-old bedrock sliced by the ancient St. Croix River has surely attracted awe-seekers since the last glacier receded and sent a torrent of water south.

Today, what’s known as the Dalles of the St. Croix is designated as Interstate State Park. Both Minnesota and Wisconsin set aside the bluffs more than 100 years ago, the first such interstate conservation in American history, and the first protected lands along the river.

Both parks offer fascinating glacial potholes, unique plants and animals, and access to the Wild & Scenic St. Croix. They also offer beautiful views — mostly of each other.

The Wisconsin park is the larger of the two, with 1,300 acres to Minnesota’s 300 acres. It was designated by the state legislature in 1900, five years after Minnesota took the first step. The protection of both parks was promoted by George Hazzard, who founded the St. Croix River Association a decade later, and inspired by proposals to mine the rock for building construction in the Twin Cities.

During the 1930s, the federal government invested significant time and money in developing the park. Crews from the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration spent several years building roads, trails, picnic grounds, bathrooms and drinking fountains, retaining walls, and other structures. The long-lasting work earned the park two separate historic districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

Today, besides the opportunity to tread old trails along the cliffs, Wisconsin Interstate also offers a swimming beach on placid Lake O’ The Dalles. There is camping and canoeing. There are hiking trails to unique habitats. There is a heron rookery and eagles that will grab a fish right in front of you if you wait long enough.

Wisconsin Interstate is even home to the threatened Brittle Prickly-Pear cactus, which lives on exposed bedrock glades in a secluded corner of the park.

With 400,000 visitors each year, it’s where a big portion of the people who enjoy the St. Croix experience it.

But it is also woefully underfunded, which at least one advocates says is hurting park experiences, and neighboring communities that benefit from tourism.

“The park is 100 years old, things are going to fall apart,” says Trudy Lorenz. “We should be stewards of that park, for the next generation and next.”

Lorenz taught kindergarten in St. Croix Falls for decades, taking her young students to the park each year for immersion in nature and wonder. Retired now, Lorenz still finds peace in the park, and is a vocal advocate for it. She serves as chair of its nonprofit friends group.

To describe what she loves about Interstate, Lorenz only needs one word: “serenity.”

Park booster

The Friends of Interstate and Straight Lake State Parks hosts events, staffs the visitor center gift shop, and raises money to protect Interstate.

In recent years, the park has struggled for funding, after former Governor Scott Walker eliminated state support in 2015. Parks were instructed to raise fees, seek sponsorships, and otherwise generate revenue to sustain their operations.

The effects at Interstate were staff spread thin, the loss of law enforcement officers, and crumbling facilities.

While the friends group tries to help, the few staff at Interstate are also in charge of Straight Lake State Park, a half-hour drive away, and Governor Knowles State Forest Campground, even farther away.

It puts a strain on the people and the parks. Law enforcement rangers were cut from the budget, so local emergency services became the only options. On a busy summer weekend with all its 80 campsites filled, the beach crowded, the trails crawling with hikers, it presents a public safety concern.

In addition to law enforcement, Lorenz believes a staff naturalist is critical. It was a naturalist who worked with her students during their visits, opening them up to the natural wonders of the park.

“All their senses are used, they are focused,” she remembers. “Put on their deer ears and be able to hear it and see it.”

But a naturalist was eventually cut from the budget. It compounded the harm of reductions in education funding.”Schools aren’t coming because they have no money, and the naturalist isn’t there because park doesn’t have enough money,” she explains.

In response, the friends group has raised enough money to hire a part-time educator for several summers. Lacy Sellent offers programs for children and family that deepen their appreciation for nature, and strengthen their connection to Interstate.

But her hours are limited, and there are many other needs at Interstate.

“There’s so much we could be doing that we’re not doing,” Lorenz laments.

Beach party

On a recent summer evening, Lorenz and 30 or so other people from the community gathered near the Lake O’ the Dalles beach to celebrate a significant accomplishment.

Dragonflies buzzed over the grass, sand, and water, hunting for their supper. A family of geese occupied a far corner. Sun glinted off the lake, which drains into the St. Croix River through a short creek.

The gathering was organized to mark the completion of a long-needed restoration project. The beach has been re-made it into a much safer version of its prior self. In addition to removing a crumbling retaining wall, the beach was doubled in size, and the grassy slope above was regraded to be more gentle.

The project was funded by a $50,000 grant from the Department of Natural Resources.

Kids ran across the lawn and the sand, and played on swings and a climbing wall a short walk toward the parking lot. The playground was provided by the Friends organization.

“It is a tremendous asset to have a lake and swimming beach at the park,” said Lorenz. “The Lake O’ the Dalles gives visitors to the park a place to swim safer than the river. You don’t have to worry about the power of the current.”

The lake also makes a great place for learning how to canoe, again safe from the river’s current. The Friends group, park staff, and the St. Croix River Association have hosted several events to get people acquainted with paddling.

The work is critical to helping more people fall in love with nature, because people protect what they love. Almost 120 years since it was created, the park’s future will be in the hands of people holding a canoe paddle for the first time on Lake O’ the Dalles.

“I don’t want this to become a ‘has-been’ park,” Lorenz says.

The question isn’t whether Interstate will remain a park, but whether it will be able to continue providing high-quality experiences to visitors, despite reductions in financial and human resources.

Lorenz remembers how a state park naturalist once explained how everything in nature lives by the rule of M.A.D. — Move, Adapt, or Die.

The park can’t move. Its stewards won’t let it die. So they, the park, and the public will have to adapt to changes and care for special places like Interstate in the future.

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