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Driftless National Park

  • 3 days ago
  • 2 min read

I read with interest your article announcing the $500,000 grant to the Driftless Development to attract out-of-state residents to move to Crawford County. I can understand its reasoning. I would like to use this opportunity to once again present the Driftless River National Park project.


People, especially retirees, love to live near national parks and support the local economies year-round. This park would be a huge magnet for people to relocate to the Driftless Area and Prairie du Chien.


In addition to people moving to the Driftless Area and Prairie du Chien, I expect at least 2 million visitors a year most within a four-month period. If they spend only $300 each, that would amount to $600 million in direct spending a year. Around $132,000 a year for a family of four.


In addition, another $120 million in indirect spending as these dollars are recirculated in the economy. This park has the potential to be a recreational, ecological , educational, and financial goldmine. Plus, it is a non-consumptive use of the resource.


There are other land preservation efforts going on in the region, but they are only preserving about 1,000 acres a year. At this rate, it would take over 300 years to preserve Crawford County.


Morris Udahl, the Secretary of the Interior, during the Carter administration, said once, "I have been involved in legislation creating a dozen national parks and the same pattern keeps repeating itself. At first people want to hang you. In five years, they think it is the best thing that ever happened to their community. In 20 years, they probably want to name a mountain after you."


This is a nationally significant resource that needs national resources brought to fore. Finally, to landowners, no landowners will be forced to participate. For those that do there will be significant benefits: financial security, living out your lives on the land you love, and knowing your land will be as you left it.


I am planning to start doing park presentations in the Driftless Area and other areas. I would invite people to attend and learn more.


 
 
 

Comments

Art, History, Geography, and Culture come together in this new Wisconsin Book!

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Meet the Author

Brian Stanley

Bryan is a soil scientist.  He grew up in the Driftless Area, and eventually earned a bachelor's degree in Natural Resources from UW-Stevens Point.

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"The cultural aspects of the Driftless Area are fascinating," he notes.  "The significance of the people who have lived here or whose lives have intersected here is historically important and significant to the story of the creation of a national park."

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Stanley is donating all profits from the book to establish a new park in Crawford County which lies in the heart of the Driftless Area.

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DID YOU KNOW THAT...

  • Prairie du Chien is Wisconsin's second oldest community.  Green Bay was the first - both areas were established by the French.

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  • The first (and only), President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, was a U.S. Army officer stationed at Fort Crawford at Prairie du Chien.

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  • The term, "Driftless Area" means that no glacial drift is found in this region of deep valleys and high hills.

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  • Petroglyphs are rock engravings or sculptures while pictographs are drawings done with charcoal, paint, or other materials.

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  • To create a new National Park, the proposed area must be deemed nationally significant in at least one of these three areas:

    1. Natural​

    2. Historical

    3. High Recreation Potential

The Driftless Area has all three!​

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To purchase your spectacular Wisconsin book today, click here or you can contact Bryan at bryan@driftlessrivers.org

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