Keweenaw NHP Vision and Goals
Vision
The landscape and interpretive potential of the Keweenaw Peninsula “Copper Country” provide outstanding
opportunities to observe and understand the multi-faceted and comprehensive historic record of hard-rock
copper mining that began here 7000 years ago and continued to the 1990s. This mining took place often
at an immense scale, and in 1991 Congress envisioned a commensurately large partnership between the
National Park Service, the Keweenaw NHP Advisory Commission, and the numerous communities and public
history organizations throughout the Copper Country to lead the preservation of this vast cultural landscape
and develop its interpretive potential; the partnership was to be known as Keweenaw National Historical
Park.
The National Park Service (NPS) aims, by the time of the NPS Centennial in 2016, to establish the 15-year
old Keweenaw National Historical Park as a premier public history consortium, preserving significant historic
landscape resources and interpreting the diverse stories of mining technology, corporate/human interaction,
economic cycles, geology and environment, immigration and culture, and the role of copper in human endeavors.
Long-Term Goals
PARTNERSHIPS AND SUSTAINED OPERATIONS
1. By 2017, an organization or network of organizations is well established in raising support for Keweenaw
NHP (NPS, Advisory Commission, and partners) as demonstrated through annual grants and donations (cash,
in-kind) equivalent to at least ¼ of the park’s appropriated budget and the doubling of the number of volunteers.
2. By 2017, through cooperative efforts, visitors to the Keweenaw Peninsula can easily recognize and interpret
cultural landscapes related to copper mining through well-preserved and interpreted cultural resources,
to the point that 25% of all visitors to the Keweenaw can describe the significance of the park at the conclusion
of their visit.
RESOURCE PRESERVATION
3. By 2017, a strategy for the long-term protection of nationally and regionally significant copper-mining
resources on the Keweenaw Peninsula is developed and its implementation initiated, and the Quincy Smelter
will be stabilized and interpreted to the public. By 2010, the strategy for NPS units is being implemented.
VISITOR EXPERIENCE
4. By 2017, visitors can experience a cohesive national park experience along the length of the Keweenaw
Peninsula, allowing for easy understanding and selection of routes, sites, programs, recreational opportunities,
and activities related to the copper mining story, while recognizing that multiple partners and missions
are involved in preservation and interpretation.
5. By 2017, the General Management Plan goal of providing a traditional national park experience is met in
the two NPS units of the park through development of a core resource and interpretive experience that anchors
the national park and partner sites.
6. By 2017, all NPS and Heritage Site facilities open to the public are accessible, maintain a professional public
appearance, are compliant with life-safety code, and foster environmentally sustainable practices.
EDUCATION & INTERPRETATION
7. By 2017, a program is in place that has every student on the Keweenaw Peninsula experiencing at least
once in their K-12 schooling an on-site curriculum-based program at the park (including the Keweenaw
Heritage Sites).
8. By 2017, visitors year-round may gain an understanding of the park themes through dynamic and diverse
interpretive opportunities at NPS facilities, including an interpretive experience in every park-occupied building
and on NPS-owned properties. Partner sites will be approaching a similar result in interpretive media and
programming.
PUBLIC HISTORY
9. By 2017, Keweenaw NHP is nationally recognized and frequently sought out as a prominent and accessible
source of copper mining history through museum collections, research, and interpretation.
EMPLOYEE DIVERSITY
10. By 2017, NPS seasonal employees at Keweenaw NHP will reflect the diversity of the regional universities
through development of sustained recruitment programs and training opportunities.
