It won’t be long and a popular park that was vacant for a decade will open for a second season.
The Mountain Historical Society maintains Green Lake Park, located just south of Mountain on state highways 32 and 64.
The society will reopen the park May 24, in time for the first busy holiday weekend of the tourist season.
Visitors who checked out the park last year will see some major improvements, according to society President Brenda Carey-Mielke.
Those improvements include new blacktop on the road leading to the boat landing, stairs heading from a trail to the boat landing and a trail leading from the picnic and beach area to the landing.
The U.S. Forest Service operated the park as a day-use picnic area for several years before shutting it down in 2015 to cut costs. Several other recreation sites — including campgrounds — were also shut down throughout the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest.
Carey-Mielke spearheaded an effort to get the park reopened because it includes a pavilion built in 1937. The pavilion is the reason U.S. Forest Service officials decided to work with the society to reopen the park.
“We got the community engaged and involved through social media,” Carey-Mielke said. “We had an overwhelming response from the community.”
Carey-Mielke has no idea how many people showed up at the park last year but knows it was heavily used.
“We’d have to have a manual counter,” she said. “People come in through the main gate off the road, and they also walk in through the boat landing.”
The U.S. Forest Service required a $5 daily fee to use the park for years but didn’t enforce the fee.
“When the park was open, they were lucky to get $100 (a year),” Carey-Mielke said. “Last year, we raised over $900.”
The society doesn’t charge an admission fee to enter the park but placed several signs asking for donations. A donation tube is located near the main kiosk in the parking lot.
“I still believe that people will donate rather than be forced to pay,” Carey-Mielke said. “I don’t believe in charging people five bucks to come in and park your car. When we were negotiating the agreement, they wanted a fee. My point was there’s a mom with two kids. This is an impoverished area, and she doesn’t have a lot of money. She’s supposed to take part of her food money to pay a fee to allow her children to enjoy what nature offers. The (Forest Service) thought about it and said, “OK, we agree, we just hope you can raise enough money.’ We’re going to be aggressive with fundraising.”
Signs with QR codes are located throughout the park.
“I spoke last year with the district ranger, and he wanted to know how we opened it as quickly as we did and how we raised the money,” Carey-Mielke said. “We had a pig raffle and roast last year and raised money. When you trust the community to come in and be a part of it, they will not disappoint.”
Carey-Mielke said a family visiting the park last year made a lasting impression on her.
“I saw a car in there from Ontario, Canada, and it was a family picnicking at one of the tables,” she said. “I went over and said, ‘Hi, are you from Ontario, Canada? They said, ‘We saw you on Facebook.’”
Green Lake Park scheduled to open May 24
