THE POST-CRESCENT

June 8, 2004

HARTMAN CREEK PARK A PRIZE

Waupaca Area Park Called Wisconsin’s Best

By Ed Culhane, Post-Crescent staff writer

WAUPACA – Folks here are well aware of he natural treasure lying six miles west of the city off State 54 and bordering the Chain O’ Lakes.

It’s 1,500 acres of pine and hardwood forest standing sentry over some of the prettiest glacial lakes on the continent.

Since it opened in 196, Hartman Creek State Park has been a popular destination for campers. Its reservable campsites are always booked ahead for the season. But it’s more than a lovely place to pitch a tent. It’s a living experiment, where dozens of volunteers give their sweat to the earth and where history rises from the ground.

When the Wisconsin State Park System – which includes 60 state parks and 33 forest, trails and recreation areas – held a statewide banquet this spring, Hartman Creek received the Park of the Year Award for 2002. The date on the plaque is 2 years old because these meetings are only held every third year.

"We were very happy to be recognized by our peers," said Barry Fetting, ranger and interim park superintendent.

Fetting said credit belongs to the team of four staff members on duty in 2002, under then-park superintendent Brian Heft, and to the 70 Waupaca area park lovers who donate time, materials and money through the Friends of Hartman Creek.

Also honored at the statewide meeting this spring was Sue Eiler of Waupaca, a naturalist and historic interpreter at Hartman who was named Volunteer of the Year for 2001.

Hefty arrived at the park in August 2000, staff members said, but it wasn’t until 2002 that he had a full staff and was able to launch an ambitious program of park improvements, office modernization and cost cutting. Financial specialist Kay Leege, who helps manage the office, said Hefty is an energetic supervisor who preached, "If you can’t find something to do, find someone to tell you what to do."

"He was a lot of fun," she said. "It was just really a good, cohesive team that year."

Among their accomplishments: the staff built 75 or more new signs, starting with 12-foot posts and bare lumber, routing out words and symbols, sanding, priming, painting and building each one by hand. Every sign in the park was replaced and new ones were added. Showers were re-tiled. The maintenace shop was reorganized with a new labeling system. Shelves were built in the office, technology added, procedures streamlined, mileage on park vehicles reduced.

Hefty nominated Eiler for the volunteer award. He noted that Eiler spear-headed the charge to make Hartman Creek the first state park with a recycling program. He said she created the butterfly garden in the front of the park office and led efforts to restore an old Norwegian log cabin in the park.

He said she almost single-handedly controlled the invasion of garlic mustard plants in the park and has taken on 20 programs as a volunteer naturalist, including her popular presentation on wild edibles and her historic portrayals of Anna Hellestad, a 19^th-century immigrant who, with her husband, Ole, first occupied the cabin.

Eiler grew up in Waupaca, but embarked on her training as a naturalist at the Retzer Nature Center, near Waukesha, where she and her husband lived for years before they moved to Waupaca. It became a passion, and she’s been on a journey of discovery ever since.

The cabin – moved from its original location near Scandinavia, which was considered "Indian country" when it was built in 1864 – was donated to the park, but it took $17,000 and two years of volunteer labor to restore it. Eiler knew it was Norwegian but wanted to know about he people who first lived in it. It took a great deal of effort, but she found the heirs.

"I must have called every Norwegian up State 49," she said. "When I found them, they actually did have some written history."

Eiler has written a 72-page book that tells the story of Ole and Anne Olson, who changed their name to Hellestad in the New World, and which details volunteer efforts to restore the cabin. She now brings that history to life for schoolchildren and other park visitors when she dons historic garb and becomes Anne Hellestad, complete with the thick Norwegian accent.

She tells the story of a people escaping hopeless poverty, a story of hardship and perseverance.

"When I’m in the outfit and become Anne, I give them a little experience of the fortitude, the foresight and the endurance these people had," she said. "Here they had a future, and even though it was dangerous and many died on the way over, … at least they had an opportunity."