- Location
- Wisconsin
- Current protection
- Kettle Moraine State Forest; Ice Age National Scenic Trail; Ice Age National Scientific Reserve
- Status
- No active campaign
- Tier
- Tier 3 · Smaller national site
- In the book
- Not featured in Undiscovered America
Why should it be a National Park?
Across Wisconsin, the last glaciers left their calling card in ridges, kettles, kames, and eskers, a landscape that shows exactly where the ice stopped and how it melted. The Kettle Moraine is the finest stretch of it.
Ray Zillmer wanted a 500-mile National Park along the whole moraine. The landscape is as significant as he said, and it deserves the name he wanted for it.
The history of National Park Campaigns
Milwaukee's Ray Zillmer proposed a narrow, 500-mile National Park along the terminal moraine through Wisconsin. The Park Service was interested but favored a more compact park, with units at Kettle Moraine State Forest and the Baraboo Range. Rep. Henry Reuss introduced legislation in 1958, and after Zillmer's death he turned it into the Ice Age National Scientific Reserve and, later, the Ice Age National Scenic Trail.
- Distinct National Park attempts
- 1 (1950s Zillmer proposal and 1958 Reuss bill)
- Other designation attempts
- 2 (1964 scientific reserve; 1980 scenic trail)
Sources
- Sarah Mittlefehldt, "The Origin of Wisconsin's Ice Age Trail," Wisconsin Magazine of History (2007)
- Correspondence of the proposed Moraine National Park, npshistory.com
- Wikipedia, List of proposed National Parks of the United States
- 1950s
Ray Zillmer proposes a 500-mile Moraine National Park; the Park Service suggests a smaller park at Kettle Moraine and the Baraboo Range.
- 1958
Rep. Henry S. Reuss introduces legislation for the park.
- 1960
Zillmer dies; Reuss carries the idea forward.
- October 13, 1964
Congress creates the Ice Age National Scientific Reserve.
- October 3, 1980
Congress designates the Ice Age National Scenic Trail.