Introducing Our New Executive Director! Adrienne Detanico joined us as our new Executive Director in April. Hello IRKPA Members, Friends, and Supporters! My name is Adrienne Detanico, and I am thrilled to join IRKPA as the new executive director! I am currently relocating from Chicago. After 12 visits to Isle Royale National Park since 2018, as a visitor and a volunteer, I wanted to make the Keweenaw Peninsula my home. I’ve been working in the organic gardening world for the past decade, as well as worked as an attorney and volunteered with various nature-focused non-profits. I was looking for a new adventure up north. I think I found it! I am currently learning the immediate needs and long-term goals of IRKPA. I have already met so many well-wishers, and I have found new inspiration. I visited the Keweenaw National Historical Park for the first time and was so impressed by what the Park is preserving and the stories they are telling. I have a personal goal to visit as many of the Heritage Sites as possible this summer. I look forward to working together with you to protect and promote both the profound natural beauty of Isle Royale and the Keweenaw Peninsula, as well as preserve the intriguingly rich history of the Copper Country!

 

Carl Levin Research Grant Awarded

CALUMET, Mich. –– Two students from the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, were the recipients of the first Carl Levin Student Research Grants awarded by the Isle Royale & Keweenaw Parks Association.  The Carl Levin Student Research Grant awards research projects to students enrolled in an accredited institution of higher education that address historical, cultural, ecological or biological issues addressing the management priorities of Keweenaw National Historical Park, headquartered in Calumet, Michigan.

Recently, grants were awarded to Emery (Emma) Day and Rachel Thompson. Both students spent the summer at the park as interns conducting research and learning about public history.

Thompson, from New London, Wisconsin, is a fourth-year student double majoring in history and social studies education. She has extensive experience working with children and adults in educational settings. Thompson’s project involves two elements: 1) A capstone paper that examines the history of the 1913 labor strike through an ethnic studies lens and 2) preparing a lesson plan based on her findings that can be shared on Keweenaw NHP’s website. The lesson plan she will create based on her research will be aimed at children 12 and up, encouraging them to think deeply about the history of ethnic divisions in America and how their surroundings are still impacted by these conflicts today. Thompson’s faculty supervisor is UWEC history professor Cheryl Anna Jimenez Frei.

Day, from Dassel, Minnesota, is expected to graduate from UWEC in December with a Bachelor of Arts degree in public history. Her research focuses on the history of health in America: specifically, the state of public health in the Keweenaw Peninsula mining communities during the implementation of basic infrastructure such as plumbing. She also seeks to find what this tells us about how health was seen in rural and marginalized communities. Her primary sources were collections within Keweenaw NHP including city infrastructure or building records.

Amber Kraft, Keweenaw NHP’s Interpretation and Education Program Manager said Thompson and Day were outstanding additions to the park’s summer staff. “This summer Rachel and Emery were able to interact with and enhance the experience for visitors from across the country who were able to talk with them in person at the park’s visitor center, and engage with them on their social media posts. They had the opportunity to visit many area archival repositories and conduct oral histories as they conducted research here over the summer.”

The late Carl Levin, whom the grants were named after, represented Michigan in the U.S. Senate for 36 years. He was instrumental in the inception of Keweenaw NHP.  The Isle Royale and Keweenaw Parks Association is the member-supported, nonprofit cooperating association for Isle Royale National Park and Keweenaw National Historical Park.