Madeira Parking Temporarily Closed

[KMerryman]

I can give some background on some of the questions I see on the board since GLSPS has been working with the DNR to improve the access for quite a few years. Things do move very slowly in government. I apologize for the length of this reply. Back in 1997 we were approached by the Minnesota Parks and Trails Council to support them in acquiring the land parcel including Gold Rock Point for inclusion to Split Rock State Park. The Conco Company, who owned it and who administers the Congdon trust holdings, wanted to sell the property. The last thing we wanted to see was restricted private land and condominiums built on Gold Rock Point. It was one of the few if not the only remaining privately owned high overlook points on the North Shore that did not have a castle built on it, and it was the intention of the Parks and Trails Council to keep it in its undeveloped state. Unfortunately the reality is that the only way that happens now-a-days is if it is included in a park. The Minnesota Parks and Trails Council is an non-profit organization that works with the DNR to acquire choice land for inclusion in state parks. Minnesota law prohibits the DNR from bidding against private companies for land so the independent non-profit Parks and Trails Council acts as an intermediary and buys the land then willingly sells it to the state. We supported this action and attended meetings and tried to keep the diving community appraised of what was happening so they could participate in the process. We really didn't have enough money to do much to financially support it. The process was completed on Sept 12, 1998 when the Council turned over the parcel of land to the DNR for inclusion into the park. We were aware that things most likely would change, but have been working with the DNR to make sure that the point stays open even when the park is closed, but yes you might well have to pay a state park fee. We felt it was a small price to pay to guarantee that the access stays open. After that we have been working with the Park to improve the access and have invited and welcome comments and opinions toward that goal. One of the impediments we hit in that process was that the DNR does not like to develop a public access to a private historical site at least not without a willing owner. At the time the Madeira salvage rights were privately owned by a corporation created by Lee Opheim who did some minimal salvage back in the 1960's. Lee died in December 1998. In the spring of 2000 GLSPS secured the salvage rights in a donation from Lee's partner Donald Wise, who was administering the assets of the corporation. That cleared the final albeit minor hitch to improving the access. The park showed us the proposal for the improvements several years ago. We voiced a concern about the having to check in at the park and suggested just leaving it open for anyone to use. We were told that if they did that the parking lot would be overrun by bicyclists using the bicycle trail and divers would be pushed out by a much larger user group. We again agreed. Our obligation and goal is to work to make sure that divers have good access to the site and keeping it sometimes requires continual monitoring of conditions. Two things we have learned in working with government entities is that they tend to listen to organized groups more than individuals, and if you want something done, you have to be persistent. Our persistence paid off for the Hesper access. Had the GLSPS not be persistent, the divers access would have literally been dropped from the plan. We are optimistic that the changes will be positive. I think we also acknowledge that things will probably not be what we want at first. I encourage you to voice your concerns to the park and carbon GLSPS. GLSPS will gladdly continue pushing for any needed changes over the long term. If you email info@glsps.org the message will get to the access committee chairman. If you are interested in any more of the details on the background of the process, there were regular articles in our newsletters starting in Spring 1997 (See under Newsletter Archive). By the way, the path was supposed to be improved to a class 5 I believe is the term. I apologize that we don't have a hard copy of the plan to put on the web. I suspect by the time we would get it now you will be able to see the changes first hand.