Wisconsin State Law Library

This week is National Park Week - that wonderful week when admission to national parks is free! Even if you don't have plans to travel out to any of our 401 national parks, you can be an armchair tourist through the National Park Service website.

I did my own armchair tour of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. The official page has all the travel information and photos you could want.

However, for a more personal and timely touch, I recommend visiting the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore Facebook page. Here you can look at current pictures and videos - and even read a poem!

For those wishing to learn more about the laws that created these parks, the National Park Service maintains a page of legal history. This page links to laws on:

• Archeology
• Historic Preservation
• Maritime
• Museums & Archives
• National Park Service
• Native Americans & NAGPRA
• Tax Incentives for Historic Preservation
• Transportation

The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore was established by Public Law 91-424 on September 26, 1970. The lakeshore was created to "conserve and develop for the benefit, inspiration, education, recreational use, and enjoyment of the public certain significant islands and shoreline of the United States and their related geographic, scenic, and scientific values ... in Ashland and Bayfield Counties, Wisconsin." You can read the originating act which created the lakeshore in our library or use HeinOnline to research remarks in the Congressional Record. Statements you'll find include the following summary of the lakeshore:

"The area is an excellent one for a national lakeshore, containing beautiful beaches, 20 islands in the lake on which many animal species live, and much geological evidence of the glacial period, including caves, caverns, and arches carved out thousands of years ago." (116 Cong. Rec. 31210 (1970))

The Gaylord A. Nelson Apostle Islands National Lakeshore Wilderness Act can be read online, as part of Public Law 108-447. You can also read the current law for the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore online.