State Parks of Wisconsin 



IV. AVAILABLE SITES 



At the invitation of the State Park Board I have visited the Dells 

 of the Wisconsin River at Kilbourn, Devil's Lake near Baraboo, 

 various properties in Door County and the bluff land at the conflu- 

 ence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers in Grant County. 



In an attempt to outline something like a well-balanced system of 

 State Parks for Wisconsin it should be kept in mind that the prin- 

 ciple has already been accepted and a start already made in the In- 

 terstate Park of the Dalles of the St. Croix. More than a decade 

 ago, by joint action of the legislatures of Wisconsin and Minnesota, 

 a park property near Taylors Falls, in many respects ideal, was se- 

 cured and set aside as an Interstate Park. No description of this 

 reservation is here called for, but it is not amiss to say that, notwith- 

 standing Wisconsin's neglect of the property, its inadequate area 

 and illogical boundaries, it has been an important factor in attracting 

 favorable public attention to the State and its resources. 



If it were right and good for the State of Wisconsin to secure the 

 Dalles of the St. Croix, how much more reason there was for taking 

 possession of the Dells of the Wisconsin. At the time the Dalles of 

 the St. Croix were secured, the Dells of the Wisconsin were equally 



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