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8. The Doolittle Years
- University of Wisconsin Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
With Peninsula State Park formally established, it was essential to select someone to oversee the many tasks required for its development. This individual had to be proficient in construction, forestry, conservation practices , public relations, and political acumen—somewhat of a “renaissance ranger.” A. E. Doolittle proved to be just such an individual. Doolittle first arrived on the scene in , to supervise improvements at the park. That summer state forester E. F. Griffith had told the Ephraim Men’s Club what needed to be done. The forestry department was in charge of all improvements for Wisconsin’s fledgling state park system, and Griffith was familiar with the park site, having visited it with the board and other officials on their inspection trip. First, he told the group, underbrush and dead timber must be cleared away under the supervision of a state forest ranger. Next, temporary repairs would be made to the roughest areas of the roads, as would the surveying for road alignments and development of camping areas. Also being considered for the park was a horticultural experiment station.1 Several weeks later three state employees, plus several student workers, were stationed in the park to begin the work. Al Doolittle, a state ranger at that time, would supervise them.2 A native of Elroy, Wisconsin, Doolittle married Lettie Hastings of Cadott in . Two years later, the young couple moved to Vilas County, where Doolittle worked in lumber camps and established the Rocky Reef Resort on Trout Lake, a modest combination hotel in their home that later had several rustic cabins. Doolittle then became a state forest ranger and managed the state fish hatchery at Trout Lake.3 After taking the exam to become a park superintendent , he was appointed Peninsula’s first superintendent, a position he held for three decades.4 he oolittle ears Doolittle selected one of the houses on land the state had purchased for the family’s residence, but after his wife and seven children joined him the house proved to be too small. In they moved into a larger house, which was moved one-quarter of a mile over the ice from another location in the park and then remodeled to make it a “modern” residence.5 It still serves as the park superintendent’s house. As superintendent, Doolittle proved to be a man of remarkable vision and dedication throughout his thirty-year career at Peninsula. Strong willed and feisty, he worked tirelessly to promote the park and secure funds for its maintenance and development. He also had a keen sensitivity for its natural features and breathtaking beauty. Doolittle planned many of the early features of the park. Under his direction, miles of its roads, scenic lookouts, early campgrounds , the towers, and initial portions of the golf course were constructed. An enterprising individual, Doolittle also established a small motel complex near the Fish Creek entrance. Nearby he built a service station where gasoline, auto accessories, refreshments, and camping equipment were sold. It also provided restrooms for travelers and park visitors. In anticipation of a tourism boom, an unusual but visionary proposal was made for northern Door County in the fall of . The E. E. Galle Company A. E. Doolittle (center) with his wife, several children, and relatives. (Courtesy Peninsula State Park office) of Minneapolis, working with the Sturgeon Bay Commercial Club, undertook a feasibility study for an interurban railroad through the northern peninsula.6 What probably helped generate this idea were the hazards and unpredictability of travel by boat at that time. In fact, one of the Great Lakes’ worst storms occurred early in November of that very year. It resulted in the disappearance of twelve ships, serious damage to twenty-five more vessels, and the loss of an estimated to people. Decrying the area’s remoteness, H. R. Holand began promoting the railroad from Sturgeon Bay to “the farthest limits of the peninsula.” If “two sturdy arms of steel” were built, he maintained, considerable business would come to the city’s merchants from towns in “the large stretch of fertile country” to the north. The proposal had been met with “a most liberal and ready welcome,” he maintained, since it would “bring prosperity to the struggling thousands there.”7 To capitalize the planned “Sturgeon Bay and Northern Railroad,” a stock subscription was proposed. “Where cash was lacking, there was considerable good will” about the venture, he added. Citizens could raise the money, if “a promising heifer, perhaps, was disposed of...