Whitefish Dunes Naturalist Honored
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Carolyn Rock said she was embarrassed when she learned she was the recipient of the 2014 Historic Preservation Award.
“I’m just doing my job,” said Rock, who has served as the naturalist at Whitefish Dunes State Park (WDSP) since April 1, 1999.
However, knowing that the award will bring greater recognition to Door County’s maritime heritage has helped assuage her embarrassment.
“There is all sorts of maritime history throughout the county,” Rock said. “It’s a great resource. We have this great, amazing world-class resource here in Door County. That’s helped me embrace the award.”
Rock was nominated for the award by the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Maritime Preservation and Archaeology Program “for her 15-year effort to protect the shipwrecks of Whitefish Bay, to promote maritime heritage on the Door Peninsula, and to further the efforts of Wisconsin’s Maritime Trails initiative.”
“I thank them for nominating me, but I don’t do this in a vacuum,” Rock said. “Working with the Historical Society and the Maritime Preservation Program has been a delight because the people who are there have just been a delight to work with. They do so much with so little that I’ll do anything I can do to help, not only to help them, but it helps the park. It’s all of us working together, working toward a common goal, which is sharing this really incredible information and this really cool stuff with the public in different ways.”
Rock’s accomplishments include hosting educational events, organizing teacher workshops, protecting and preserving artifacts, and creating maritime exhibits. She was also instrumental in establishing partnerships between the Wisconsin Historical Society’s maritime program and all five state parks located in Door County.
A panel of judges from the Wisconsin Historical Society recommended Rock for the award, which the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Board of Curators approved at its June meeting.
The nomination went on to some specifics of Rock’s historic preservation and education activities: “Rescuing pieces of the 13 known shipwrecks of Whitefish Bay from burn piles as various bits wash up upon the beach at WDSP, Carolyn has collected these fragments of shipwreck planking and frames. She reassembled them during summertime educational events called ‘Junior Underwater Archaeologist’ at the park’s ‘Big Red Tent’ connecting park visitors with an important part of Wisconsin history that is hidden beneath the waves.”
“People are just so fascinated by the shipwrecks in Door County, this is a no brainer. This is what interests people who come to our park,” Rock said.
She specifically mentioned that much of what she has done to increase knowledge about Door County’s maritime history has been “to keep up with Tammy Thomsen,” a maritime archeologist in the Maritime Preservation and Archaeology Program.
“Tammy is the person preserving, protecting, cataloging and sorting out maritime history for the state of Wisconsin,” Rock said.
Rock said there is still much work to be done to preserve the unique Door County maritime history, and she suggests you can support it by donating to the Maritime Preservation and Archaeology Program.
“They’re really running on a shoestring budget,” she said. “They are supported by the Wisconsin Historical Society, but like a lot of things, a lot of their funding is through grants. They need a new truck to pull their boat so they don’t have to borrow a truck to do all the work they do. Let’s get them a truck so they can use the full summer dive season to do this incredible work of preserving our maritime history. Yeah, give them money.”