Presque Isle Park is a 323-acre public

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

located in

Marquette, Michigan Marquette ( ) is a city in Marquette County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 20,629 at the 2020 United States Census, which makes it the largest city in the Upper Peninsula. Marquette serves as the seat of government of Marquett ...

, United States. The park is northwest of Marquette itself on an oval-shaped peninsula reaching out into Lake Superior, called the 'Island' locally.

History

Presque Isle was inhabited by Native Americans before the arrival of Europeans in the 17th century. The last chieftain of the local

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

, Charlie Kawbawgam, who died in 1903 at the age of 103, is buried at the park alongside his wife, Charlotte. In the late 1800s, Presque Isle was occupied by a federally owned lighthouse. Peter White has been credited with inducing the federal government to grant the land to the city of Marquette for the purpose of turning it into a park. On July 12, 1886, the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

passed a bill ceding control of the land to

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. White also raised the money needed to plant

Lombardy Poplar ''Populus nigra'', the black poplar, is a species of cottonwood poplar, the type species of section ''Aigeiros'' of the genus ''Populus'', native to Europe, southwest and central Asia, and northwest Africa.Flora Europaea''Populus nigra''/ref> ...

trees in the park, and to build a paved road to and around it. In 1891, the new road led one local organization to declare that the city had "one of the most charming and picturesque drives in the world". The road was repaved in 1999. The largely untouched, forested landscape of the park was the result of a 1891 visit from famed landscape architect

Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the USA. Olmsted was famous for co- ...

, who refused to develop a plan for it due to his belief that it "should not be marred by the intrusion of artificial objects."

The park

Presque Isle Park is located in the

Upper Peninsula of Michigan The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by t ...

on the coast of

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

. The park is itself a small, oval-shaped

peninsula A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on all ...

connected to Marquette by a narrow neck of land and surrounded by

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

cliffs. It is largely covered by natural forest and also has marshes, rocky outcrops, secluded coves and pebble beaches. The park itself is open year-round from 7am to 11pm in spring, summer and fall, and from 7am to 8pm in winter. Facilities include two picnic areas with restrooms, a children's playground, a concert shelter and hiking trails. The main route through the park is Peter White Drive, which runs around the edges of the peninsula; the Drive allows cars with the exception of scheduled 'walking hours' when motor vehicles are prohibited and the Drive is open only to foot traffic. Dogs are not permitted outside of vehicles. A series of footpaths under the John B. Anderton Trail System wind through the interior of the park

Walking hours

* Monday and Wednesday - 6:00pm to 8:00pm * Tuesday and Thursday - 7:00am to 1:00pm * Saturday and Sunday - 7:00am to 10:00am

Flora and fauna

There are over a hundred species of native plant in the park. The wildlife includes

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight of ...

s and

Canada geese The Canada goose (''Branta canadensis''), or Canadian goose, is a large wild goose with a black head and neck, white cheeks, white under its chin, and a brown body. It is native to the arctic and temperate regions of North America, and it is o ...

. Fishing for

lake whitefish The lake whitefish (''Coregonus clupeaformis'') is a species of freshwater whitefish from North America. Lake whitefish are found throughout much of Canada and parts of the northern United States, including all of the Great Lakes. The lake white ...

lake trout The lake trout (''Salvelinus namaycush'') is a freshwater char living mainly in lakes in northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, namaycush, lake char (or charr), touladi, togue, and grey trout. In Lake Superior, it can also ...

and

brook trout The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae. It is native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada, but has been introduced elsewhere ...

is permitted at certain designated spots.

History

The park

Walking hours

Flora and fauna

References

Further reading