Keweenaw National Historic Park walking tours popular with visitors
Up close and personal
Keweenaw National Historic Park walking tours popular with visitors
By KURT HAUGLIE, DMG Writer
CALUMET — Sometimes the best way to get the feel for a place is to experience it on foot. That’s the premise of the Keweenaw National Historical Park’s walking tours of various area sites.
Kathleen Harter, chief of interpretation and education at KNHP headquarters in Calumet, said there are three walking tours on a weekly basis in June, July and August.
“That’s when we have two summer interpretive staff,” Harter said. “This is the second summer doing guided tours on a regular basis.”
The tours include Calumet on Tuesday and Saturday, the Quincy Mine site on Sunday and a children’s tour in Calumet on Friday. Complete information about the tours can be found at the KNHP Web site, www.nps.gov/kewe or by calling the park information desk at 482-0650.
Harter said tour participants will see the architecture of downtown Calumet and see landmarks important to the mining industry, and at the Quincy Mine site they’ll get an understanding of how a mine operated.
The guides work primarily out of the park office at the Quincy Mine Hoist on U.S. Highway 41 north of Hancock because it’s such a prominent site and is easy to find, Harter said.
“That’s a good location for people to go to,” she said. “(The guides) also manage the (park) information desk seven days a week.”
Harter said the decision to conduct the walking tours was reached after park officials learned it was a high priority of many visitors.
“We did an in-depth visitor survey,” she said. “It’s also been a high priority for local communities for getting better visitor knowledge. A great way to do that is to have interpretive rangers.”
The interpretive rangers are part-time summer employees, Harter said. They go through an intensive two to three week training process during which they visit all the park’s sites.
“They’re also reading and researching all the local books that have been written about the area’s history,” she said.
In order to make the program more interesting for the guides, Harter said they’re given quite a bit of leeway with how they conduct the tours.
“They choose the theme and then focus and develop it,” she said.
Some guides have an interest in social history, such as the labor movement among miners and the cultures of the various ethnic groups of miners. Others are interested in the natural history of the area or architecture.
“Each person brings different interests and skills,” Harter said.
The demographics of each tour group may cause the guides to change the tour even within a particular day. Elderly participants, children and people with physical limitations are considered.
“They will vary the program to the audience,” Harter said.
The interpretive rangers are evaluated by park officials throughout the season, Harter said.
Although this is only the second season for the walking tours, Harter said for the most part they’re better attended than last year.
The one exception is the children’s tour, she said, and park officials aren’t sure why that is.
“Is it the time or day of the week or do people just not know about it?” she asked.
The children’s tour is for children 8 to 12 years old, Harter said. It operates from 10 to 11 a.m. on Friday. Starting at park headquarters, it then goes into the Calumet industrial core. Some rangers conduct scavenger hunts with a tour theme.
Harter said the Tuesday tours are the best attended. Most of the people attending those tours are visitors to the area.
Besides positive feedback from visitors, Harter said local residents have responded well to it also.
“We’ve been encouraged by the increase in the number of visitors attending the program,” she said. “It’s a program we’d like to continue.”
Kurt Hauglie can be reached at khauglie@mininggazette.com
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