DECEMBER 19, 2000
CABLE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
WORKS WITH NORTH COUNTRY TRAIL

The Cable Natural History Museum has joined with the North Country Trail Association to help develop and promote the North Country National Scenic Trail. The Museum will serve as the Wisconsin State Coordinator for the trail, which when completed, will extend approximately 4,400 miles from the vicinity of Crown Point, New York, to Lake Sakakawea State Park on the Missouri River in North Dakota, where it joins the route of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.

The Wisconsin segment of the trail comprises 220 miles, about 80 of which are in place and certified, including a 60-mile segment in the Chequamegon National Forest and shorter stretches in the Iron County Forest, Copper Falls State Park and the Brule River State Forest.

In its new role as Wisconsin State Coordinator, the Cable Natural History Museum will coordinate communication among the state’s three chapters of the North Country Trail Association and the association’s national headquarters.

Authorized by Congress in 1980, the North Country Trail is one of only eight National Scenic Trails in the nation. These trails are long distance, non-motorized routes that follow major geographic features and/or pass through scenic areas. They are generally patterned after the renowned Appalachian Trail that extends from Georgia to Maine.

One of the primary attractions of the North Country National Scenic Trail is that it takes users through a great variety of landscapes. Currently, 1,585 miles of the trail are in place and certified as meeting the standards of a National Scenic Trail.

The National Park Service is responsible for overall administration of the North Country National Scenic Trail and has primary responsibility for planning the trail and interpreting the landscape through which it passes. Actual development and management of the trail, however, is accomplished through many cooperating federal, state, and local agencies and private trail organizations. The trail is essentially a long-distance interconnected network of trails through federal, state, local and private land.

For further information about the North Country National Scenic Trail, or to join the North Country Trail Association, contact the Cable Natural History Museum at (715) 798-3890 or e-mail nctrail@cablemuseum.org.