Patty Loew:
Wisconsin, just look at all that natural beauty.  

Dan Small:
From our sparkling waters and fortress-like forests.  

Patty Loew:
To our peaceful valleys and marshes teeming with life.  Wisconsin's wild outdoors is inviting.  And the same can be said of our state's four jewels in the national park system.  

Dan Small:
As you're about to see, as we go exploring "National Parks: Wisconsin."

Patty Loew:
This piece of property holds the key to our national park system.  Wisconsin's own John Muir turned that key and turned his vision into reality.  

Dan Small:
He grew up right here on Fountain Lake Farm in Marquette county.  It's a place where Muir says he first dreamed of a plan for national parks.  The birthplace of an idea, the cradle of our national park system.  Hello, I'm Dan small of Milwaukee Public Television.  

Patty Loew:
And I'm Patty Loew of Wisconsin Public Television.  John Muir's environmental endeavors earned him the title "Father of our National Parks." today, Muir's beautiful idea is called the National Park System.  

Dan Small:
It includes nearly 400 natural, recreational and historic sites.  John Muir's Wisconsin has four glorious contributions.  We'll start with the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, a 252-mile-long natural corridor that rises in the wilds of Wisconsin's northwoods, and eventually forms the Wisconsin-Minnesota border.  Two rivers make up the scenic riverway, the St. Croix and the Namekagon.  We'll focus on the wilder of the two, the Namekagon.  

Branda Thwaits:
It's an unbelievably wonderful, mystical, magical place, the Namekagon River is.  

Wendy Williamson:
The fishing is just second to none.  We're blessed to live in this area.  

Ruth Drake:
Wisconsin is the most beautiful state I've ever seen.  It's just gorgeous.  I love all the trees, the water.  It's just so alive, that it's just very pleasant being here.  

Dan Small:
The Namekagon River flows for 100 miles through northern Wisconsin.  A century ago, the river carried millions of logs downstream to busy saw mills, to make the lumber that built the cities of the Midwest.  Today, as part of the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, the Namekagon is preserved as a natural and recreational corridor.  

Branda Thwaits:
I don't want to make the people watching this show jealous.  However, there is a chance that I have the greatest job out there.  

Dan Small:
Branda Thwaits is an interpretive ranger for the National Parks Service.  Her beat is the Namekagon River.  Her vehicle, a kayak.  

Branda Thwaits:
My job as an interpreter is to connect people to the river.  So, if they have a question about the turtles, or the history of the river, or the cultural history, the natural resources, we try to give them more information and to help connect them to why this particular resource is so incredibly important.  

I will have so many people tell me, "Oh, I've been coming here since I was a kid.  I brought my kids, and this is our 30th year of taking our annual trip on the river," or, "I drive up from Iowa every single year with my buddy here and we've been on this river."  It's unbelievable how many people come back to this river year after year, because something about it just really connects with people.  

Wendy Williamson:
When I was young, I remember being on the river.  And you would rarely see any traffic at all, even, you know, canoes or never innertubes.  It was just, kind of you had it all to yourself.  And even 11 years ago when we came back, there was a lot less traffic.  It's being enjoyed a lot more in different ways.  

Dan Small:
Wendy Williamson grew up on the Namekagon.  Today, she makes her living on the river and it's obvious she cares deeply about it.  

Wendy Williamson:
My husband Larry and I own the Hayward Flyfishing Company.  And we have been guiding on these rivers for 11 years now.  I guess the thing I would like more than anything, would be for there to be the proper respect for the river, that it is not a water park, that there are lots of things that live here that were here way before we started doing this, whether it's, you know, the insect life, the fish themselves, turtles.  It's just incredible, the wildlife that is here.  And for us to come into their world and disturb it, I think we need to be more conscious of that and up the respect for this river.  

That's not bad, two casts, two fish...  

Branda Thwaits:
Fishing is a big deal on the river.  The most popular is canoe and kayaking and tubing, for sure.  And you can do a short stretch that might take you an hour, and you can go out for five, six days if you want.  A place like the Grand Canyon might be like a once-in-a-lifetime encounter that really affects you deeply, but it might be once in a lifetime.  The Namekagon is more like your old friend that you just, you can't get enough of, and you can't quite put your finger on why, but that person just becomes part of the fabric of your life.  That happens with this river.  

George Drake:
We're from Kansas, a suburb on the south side of Kansas City.  And we enjoy traveling around doing campground hosting, and we decided to come up here and spend a summer.  And the Park Department was willing to let us do that.  If there's anything you need, let us know, we're right over here.  

Camper:
Okay, thank you.  

George Drake:
One of the things that's impressed me at the situation here at the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway is the employees of the Park Department.  Every single employee, whether you're talking about the law enforcement ranger or the interpretative rangers, the maintenance people, no matter who it is, their primary objective is to ensure that the visitors get the most out of their visit here, and it's rewarding to see that.  

Wendy Williamson:
I realize the importance of preserving what we have here.  And this one especially, because it's a park and it's wild and scenic, and it's been designated as such.  And I would just hope that it's going to be taken care of.  

Branda Thwaits:
I spend a lot of time thinking about this, a lot of time thinking why is the Namekagon, versus other rivers, part of the national park system.  And you know, time and time again, when I talk to visitors, it's clear.  But it's not something I can say to you, it's because, and this is true, the Namekagon, the St. Croix, have an incredibly healthy population of mussels, or because the rivers are fairly clean.  It's not something simple like that.  It's more the way it makes people feel.  And it's more just how connected they are.  And I think that when it was first established, you know, it really, a lot of it was from the ground up.  People cared.