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Students helping out Keweenaw Park
Posted: 07.30.2010 at 6:45 AM
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Interns hired to create workforce

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CALUMET -- The Keweenaw National Historical Park has brought on about 30 additional workers this summer, most of them local students.  They're flattening old maps, packing up invoices from the Quincy Mine, and piecing together family histories using census data.

Every summer, the Keweenaw National Historical Park hires a handful of interns to help out around the park and especially with their archiving.  This summer they were awarded money to hire an additional undergraduate and graduate student in an effort to get young people more interested in park service.

"We have weekly training and we go on local tours," says Western Michigan grad student Anita Wuoti.  "I've learned more about the local history and my neighborhood than have my whole life, growing up."

The park also picked a group of high school students for their Youth Conservation Corps. The six teens have spent weeks weeding and picking up trash at sites including the Qincy Mine and the Italian Hall.

"Picking up garbage is fun because you're outside and it's not really difficult," says 16-year-old Zachariah Mills.  "Painting is interesting, too."

Lately, their work has focused on tidying up the old Schoolcraft cemetery.  They've removed piles of brush from the overgrown graveyard, and they're repainting the picket fence.  But with only three weeks left to work, they don't have time to make all of the improvements they'd like.

"I want to see more of the grass cut down around the stones," says 18-year-old Jestina Poissant.  "There are a lot of them back there that you don't even see, and I want people to know that it's here."

Most of the students will finish up for the season by mid-August, but until then, the park is happy to have the extra hands.

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