Several voice support but a state representative is skeptical

A new concept launched to put Voyageurs National Park on the map is getting support at many levels, as well as a little skepticism.

Destination Voyageurs National Park is a collaborative whose sole mission will be to promote the park and its recreational opportunities. Organized by Falls Mayor Shawn Mason, DVNP will be a non-profit agency led by a board of directors. Mason will serve as director.

Voyageurs National Park Superintendent Kate Miller said DVNP resulted from a collective desire to do things differently than have been done in the past.

“We want to view ourselves as partners in this,” she said. “We want to work together in a strategic way to broaden the understanding of what this park has to offer and the opportunities that people can enjoy here.”

Miller said DVNP will provide a park-wide focus, as well as help target periods when the park is underused. “Eight-tenths of the year the park is not at capacity,” Miller said. “It certainly isn’t overcrowded. The  opportunities for both motorized and non-motorized uses are just enormous.”

DVNP also offers park staff a chance to view the park through a different perspective. “I think it will stimulate creativity in how we think about the visitor experience,” she said. “I look forward to a dynamic relationship.”

Miller said the community is experiencing an exciting time as economic development projects begin to take form on several fronts.

Tim Campbell, of the Northeast Minnesota Explore Tourism, says he’s watched “the wars” over park policy for 20 years and said changes in park and community leadership in recent years appear to have played a role in changing attitudes.

He credited VNP Superintendent Kate Miller for reaching out to the residents of the gateway communities and said Mason’s skills can help bring about the goal of DVNP.

“This really marks a change in approach,” Campbell said.

Voyageurs is a product too big for any one of the agencies in Borderland to effectively promote, he said. “Destinations will bring them all together. It’s not designed to take over marketing for destinations, but to compliment and do what by themselves they can’t do.”

Cory MacNulty of the Twin Cities-based Voyageurs National Park Association is serving as chair of an advisory group developing bylaws and a board of directors for DVNP.

During the three years she’s served as director of VNPA, MacNulty says she’s witnessed changes in how people relate to the park.

She credited Miller’s approach to serving as superintendent of the park and community’s willingness to view the park in a different way.

“People are starting to look at the park as a potential asset or asset,” she said.

MacNulty said past controversies over park policy and management are not forgotten and could arise in the future. But DVNP won’t be a part of any political controversies and will simply “try to figure out how to raise awareness of Voyageurs National Park.”

The advisory committee meeting and a summer camping trip with Miller, VNP’s Kathleen Przybylski and Mason serve as an example “of how when your really sit and talk to people and get to know who they are beyond the stories we tell and on the surface, we have so much in common. To be based in the Twin Cities and be invited in to the local communities has been huge for us.”

But while Rep. David Dill, D-Orr, says he’s confident in Mason’s leadership, he’s less optimistic about the park’s potential to increase visitorship.

“The dynamics in the community are changing dramatically from resort communities to the non-resident bedroom community atmosphere,” Dill said. “People that don’t live here and live in other places, buy properties and vacation here. They don’t put their kids in our schools and the jobs that generally follow are not particularly living wage jobs.”

Dill said efforts in northeastern Minnesota must focus on promoting the park, but even greater effort should be brought to attracting new industry and high-technology jobs to the area. “That has to be the largest percentage of the portfolio,” he said.

Dill encouraged anyone with an idea to bring jobs to the area to contact him at 800-339-0466.

Rep. Tom Anzelc, D-Balsam Township, also represents a portion of the area containing the park.

“I’m more bullish on the idea than Rep. Dill is,” Anzelc said. “I will help in every way I can to make this a successful project.”

Anzelc said people feel differently about the park than they did years ago.

“Time has a way of healing and I’m hopeful the community is sufficiently healed regarding the creation of the park in ‘72,” he said. “If people see potential in this effort, I think they will support it. The park is not going away. I guarantee it.”